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CAMILLO CAVOUR 
From an engraving by Calamatta 



CAVOUR 

AND THE MAKING OF MODERN ITALY 

1810-1861 



BY 

PIETRO ORSI 

Of the University of Padua 
Deputy in the Italian Parliament 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 

Gibe IknicfterbocFier ipress 

1914 



C-5 0- 



Copyright, 19 14 

BY 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 



FEB I7I9I4 

Ube IRnfcherbocfter ipress, IRew JDorft 

©CI.Aa625 91 



INTRODUCTION 

Italia, too ! Italia ! looking on thee. 

Full flashes on the Soul the light of ages, 

Since the fierce Carthaginian almost won thee, 

To the last halo of the Chiefs and Sages 

Who glorify thy consecrated pages. 

Thou wert the throne and grave of empires; stHl, 

The fount at which the panting Mind assuages 

Her thirst of knowledge, quaffing there her fill, 

Flows from the eternal so rce of Rome's imperial hill. 

Byron: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto III. 

NO other country in the world can boast, as 
Italy can, that for more than two thousand 
years her history has been always fascinating, 
always full of glory and misfortune, of enthusiasm 
and passion. For in general those nations which, 
like Greece, played a glorious part in the ancient 
world, have never again enjoyed a period of equal 
fame, either in the Middle Ages or in modern times. 
Italy alone numbers many brilliant pages in each 
of the epochs into which the history of humanity 
is commonly divided. This explains why, in all 
the literature of the world, the references to the 
Italian peninsula are so frequent. It is enough to 
remember, for instance, the Roman and Italian 
plays of Shakespeare in order to be at once con- 



iv Introduction 

vinced of the lively interest that she has always 
aroused in the civilised world. 

It is true that from Shakespeare's time to Byron's 
Italy seemed to be -dead. The foreigner who visit- 
ed the peninsula was able to neglect its people, and 
to devote his attention solely to its monuments of 
art and archaeology, and to the beauty of its scenery. 
The Italian people seemed dead, but it was only in 
a state of lethargy, and when it awoke it once 
more accomplished feats that are worthy of Roman 
valoiir. So there came again, in Italy's history, a 
glorious epoch — the one that we speak of as her 
Revival {Risorgimento) . It was a real revolution, 
truly noble in the high ideals that inspired it, in 
the heroic deeds that were achieved, and in the 
magnanimous conduct of the Italian people, which 
knew how to attain its purpose without disgracing 
itself by unworthy violence. 

In this Revival of Italy there emerged many 
splendidly patriotic figures, genuine examples of 
every virtue that is most admired. But three in 
particular excel: the thinker and apostle, Joseph 
Mazzini; the statesman, Camillo Cavour; and the 
popular hero, Joseph Garibaldi, who was the 
highest expression of what is most generous in 
the Italian character.' In this triumvirate, the 
man who knew how to discipline all the forces of 
the country, to co-ordinate them, and to lead them 

'Of recent publications about Garibaldi three books by G. 
Macaulay Trevelyan deserve special mention: Garibaldi's Defence 
of the Roman Republic ; Garibaldi and The Thousand ; Garibaldi 
and the Making of Italy. 



Introduction v 

towards the common goal, the one who succeeded 
in crystallising into facts the hopes of all, was 
Camillo Cavour, and for this reason the story of 
his deeds becomes quite naturally a history of 
the process by which Italian unity was brought 
about. 

P. O. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction iii 

CHAPTER I 

The First Shock to the Old Edifice . 3 

The secular divisions of Italy — Condition of the 
peninsula in the second half of the i8th century: 
lack of union, of independence, and of liberty — Re- 
bound of the French Revolution — Overthrow of all 
the States of Italy — Increase of the middle class and 
its political aspirations — The generation bom in 
the Napoleonic period will be the one that is to make 
the Italy of to-day. 

CHAPTER II 

The Restoration and the Military Revo- 
lutions of 1820-1821 .... 17 

The war of independence proclaimed by Joachim 
Murat ; King Joachim's miserable end — ^The Kingdom 
of the Two Sicilies — Growth of the Kingdom of 
Sardinia and the Austrian dominions — The Papal 
States and the smaller States — Character of the 
Restoration — Napoleon I.'s prediction — The revolu- 
tion of Naples of 1820 ; intervention of Austria and 
restoration of absolutism — The Piedmontese revolu- 
tion of 182 1 ; Charles Albert — Triumph of the reaction 
— Patriot-martyrs. 

CHAPTER III 

Ten Years Later: Appearance of Mazzini 
and Cavour 45 

The new generation — Rebound of the French 
vii 



viii Contents 



PAGE 

Revolution of 1830 — Cyrus Menotti and the revolu- 
tion of 1 83 1 — Mazzini's youth ; his imprisonment — 
Cavour sub-lieutenant of engineers ; his liberal ideas. 

CHAPTER IV 

The Apostolate of Mazzini, and Cavour 's 
Preparation for Politics . . .61 

Mazzini in exile ; unionist propaganda — Young 
Italy and the expedition into Savoy, 1834 — Cavour 
renounces the military career — His political convic- 
tions — His travels — Cavour a man of affairs. 

CHAPTER V 

Progress of Liberal Ideas • • • 75 

Application of machinery to industry — The first 
railways in Italy — Development of the middle class 
— Patriotic literature and scientific congresses — 
Gioberti's // Primato d' Italia — The brothers Bandiera 
— The New Guelf party — Condition of the Papal 
States — Reawakening of patriotic aspirations in 
Charles Albert. 

CHAPTER VI 

Refprms and Enthusiasms .... 89 

■-^Enthusiasm for Pius IX — -Reforms in the Papal 
States, Tuscany and Piedmont — Cavour as a journal- 
ist — Condition of Lombardy-Venetia and the Duchies 
of Modena and Parma — Ferdinand II of Naples — 
The Sicilian revolution and the concession of a Con- 
stitution to Naples — Charles Albert grants the 
Statute — Benedite, o gran Dio, V Italia I 

CHAPTER VII 

1848: The Year of Illusions and of Poetry 107 

Venice and Milan free themselves from Austrian 
dominion — The war of independence — The Parlia- 



Contents ix 



PAGB 

ments of Sicily, Naples, Rome, Tuscany, and Piedmont 
— Austrian victories and armistice — Garibaldi — 
Ferdinand II, makes war against Sicily — Flight of the 
Pope and the Grand Duke — Piedmont at the begin- 
ning of 1849. 

CHAPTER VIII 

1849: The Year of Sacrifices and Martyr- 
doms 131 

The defeat of Novara and Charles Albert's abdica- 
tion — The Ten Days of Brescia — Sicily and Naples — 
Restoration of the Grand Duke to Florence — The 
Roman Republic : Mazzini and Garibaldi — The 
resistance of Venice : Daniel Manin. 

CHAPTER IX 

The Policy of Concentration in Piedmont 

(D'Azeglio-Cavour Ministry) . . 147 

The youth of Victor Emmanuel II. — Gloomy open- 
ing of the reign — Massimo D'Azeglio as Prime Minis- 
ter — The peace with Austria, and the proclamation of 
Moncalieri— ^Irhe Siccardi laws, and Cavour's first 
success as an orator— ^Exasperation and violence of 
the Clerical party — Cavour as Minister of Agricul- 
ture and Commerce — His predominance in the 
Ministry — Cavour as Minister of Finance — The Re 
Galantuomo — Gioberti's Civil Regeneration of Italy — 
The connubio of Cavour with Rattazzi — Cavour's exit 
from the D'Azeglio Ministry — He becomes Prime 
Minister. 

CHAPTER X 

Reaction in the Other States of Italy, 
AND Mazzini 's Propaganda . . 1 • 173 

The Neapolitan trials and Gladstone's letters— tThe 
Papacy as the centre of the reaction: Cardinal An tonelli 



Contents 



— Brigandage in the States of the Church — Restoration 
of the Grand Duke in Tuscany — Condition of Modena 
— Villainies of Charles III. of Parma ; his assassina- 
tion — Hostility of Lombardy-Venetia to the foreign 
domination ; the Mazzinist conspiracies — The Man- 
tuan trials and the Milanese movement of Feb. 6, 
1853 — Mazzini loses prestige. 

CHAPTER XI 

Cavour's Beginnings as Prime Minister . 193 

The mission of Piedmont — Its moral progress under 
the Cavour Ministry — Its assertion of Italian nation- 
ality ; the memorandum of 1833 — Alliance with the 
Western Powers ; discussions in the Chamber — 
Suppression of the religious corporations ; Massimo 
D'Azegho's letter — ^Victory of the Piedmontese at the 
Tchemaja — Victor Emmanuel II. goes to Paris and 
London — Daniel Manin and his propaganda in favour 
of Piedmont — Garibaldi at Caprera. 

CHAPTER XII 

The Italian Question at the Congress of 
Paris, and its Results . 215 

Cavour at the Congress of Paris — Discussion of the 
Italian question ; Buol and Cavour — Cavour's bold 
words_in the Subalpine Parliament — The National 
Society ; concentration of Italian life in Piedmont — 
France and England break off diplomatic relations 
with Naples — Change of Austrian policy in Lombardy- 
Venetia : rupture of diplomatic relations between 
Piedmont and Austria — The unfortunate Mazzinist 
expedition to Sapri — Universal confidence in Cavour; 
his habits of life and work. 

CHAPTER XIII 

The Meeting of Plombieres . . , 235 

Napoleon III. and the principle of nationality — 



Contents xi 



The Orsini plot — Cavour's speech to the Chamber — 
Cavour at Plombi^res (July, 1858) ; verbal compact 
with Napoleonlll. — Cavour's colloquy with Garibaldi 
— Preparations for war. 

CHAPTER XIV 

"An Interesting Winter" . . . 249 

Victor Emmanuel and " the cry of woe " — Marriage 
of the Princess Clotilda with Prince Napoleon — 
Armaments of Austria and Piedmont — The exertions 
of diplomacy, and Napoleon III.'s wavering attitude 
— Bellicose tendencies of the Court of Vienna — 
Cavour's skilful efforts — A tragical moment — Aus- 
tria's ultimatum and the outbreak of the war — 
Proclamations by Victor Emmanuel and Francis 
Joseph. 

CHAPTER XV 

" Begone from Italia, O Stranger, Begone ! " 273 

The war of 1859 : Palestro, Magenta, Solferino, and 
San Martino — Cavour as Foreign Minister, Minister 
of Home Affairs, and Minister of War and Marine — 
The most peaceful of the revolutions : flight of the 
Grand Duke of Tuscany from Florence — The revolu- 
tion at Parma, at Modena, and in Romagna — The 
preliminaries of Villafranca — Cavour resigns oflSce. 

CHAPTER XVI 

Italian Ability and English Sympathy . 295 

Uncertainty of the situation — Energetic action of 
Farini and Ricasoli, and good sense of the popula- 
tions of Central Italy — Peace of Zurich — The English 
Government favours the Italian cause — Napoleon III. 
and the Pope — Cavour returns to power — The 
question of Savoy and Nice ; cession of those terri- 
tories to France ; Garibaldi's sorrow — The plebiscites 



xii Contents 



of Tuscany and Emilia — Opening of the new Parlia- 
ment. 

CHAPTER XVII 

The Heroic Enterprise of the Thousand 307 

Cavour and the unity of Italy — Preparation of the 
expedition of the Thousand; Cavour's doubts and 
fears ; his favourable decision — Landing of Garibaldi 
at Marsala and his victories in Sicily — Vain conces- 
sions by King Francis II. — Garibaldi enters Naples in 
triumph — Victor Emmanuel's army occupies the 
Marches and Umbria — Military glory and political 
success — Lord John Russell's eulogies — Italy consti- 
tutes herself a nation without any sacrifice of liberty. 

CHAPTER XVIII 

The Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy 327 

Opening of the first Italian Piarliament — Proclama- 
tion of the Kingdom of Italy-*-Indignation of Austria 
and of the Pope — Cavour and the reconstruction of 
the Ministry — First seeds sown for the conquest of 
Venetia. 

CHAPTER XIX 

Cavour's Last Audacity .... 337 

'v-'*rhe Roman question — Secret negotiations with the 
Curia — Discussion in the Chamber ; Cavour's 
speeches of March 25 and 27, 1861 : Free Church 
in Free State — Rome acclaimed capital by Parliament 
— Painful dissension between Garibaldi and Cavour ; 
their reconciliation — Death of the great Minister 
(June 6, 1 86 1.) 

CHAPTER XX 

The Completion of National Unity . .351 

Internal diflficulties of the new Kingdom — The 



Contents xiii 



Roman question : Aspromonte ; the convention of 
Sept. 15, 1864 ; removal of the capital to Florence 
— The war of 1866 and the annexation of Venetia — 
Garibaldi in the Papal States ; intervention of the 
French, and battle of Mentana — Occupation of Rome 
(Sept. 20, 1870) — The Law of Guarantees — Removal 
of the capital to Rome — Conclusion. 

Index .373 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

CAMILLO CAvouR .... Frontispiece )/ 
From an engraving by Calamatta. 

VITTORIO ALFIERI 8 . 

From the painting by Fabre in the XJfiizi Gallery, 

Florence. 
From a photo by Alinari. 

GIUSEPPE PARINI 10 

From a contemporary print. 

NAPOLEON AT ARCOLA 12* 

From the painting by Gros in the Louvre, Paris 
From a photo by Alinari. 

NAPOLEON AS FIRST CONSUL . . . . I4 , 

From the painting by Isabey, at Versailles. 
From a photo by Alinari. 

JOACHIM MURAT . . . . . . l(i^ 

From an engraving. 

PALAZZO CARIGNANO, TURIN. THE SEAT OF THE 

PIEDMONTESE PARLIAMENT ... 24 

From a photo by Brogi. 

MARIE LOUISE, DUCHESS OF PARMA . . 48' 

From the painting by Borghesi. 
From a photo by Alinari. 



xvi Illustrations 

PAGE 

MAZZINI AS A YOUNG MAN . . . . 50 

From a contemporary print. 

CAMILLO CAVOUR AS A YOUNG MAN . . 54 

FACSIMILE OF CAVOUR's BIRTH CERTIFICATE . 58 



CAMILLO CAVOUR . 

From a photograph. 



84 



LUIGI CARLO FARINI 84 

From a contemporary print. 

THE QUIRINAL, ROME 9O 

From a photo by Alinari. 

FACSIMILE OF " IL RISORGIMENTO " FOR MARCH 

23, 1848 94 

GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI I20 

Photo by Alfieri Lacroix. 

VINCENZO GIOBERTI 126 

From an engraving. 

FACSIMILE OF AN AUTOGRAPH LETTER FROM 

CAVOUR 130 

PALAZZO DEL CAMPIDOGLIO, MUNICIPAL BUILDING, 

ROME . 136 

From a photo by Alinari. 

THE INTERVIEW BETWEEN VICTOR EMMANUEL II. 

AND GENERAL RADETZKY . . • I50 

From the painting by Pietro Aldi in the Palazzo 

della Signoria, Siena. 
From a photo by Alinari. 



Illustrations 



XVII 



GEN. A. LA MARMORA . 

From a contemporary print, 1859 

CAMILLO CAVOUR . . . , 

From a contemporary print, 1859, 

LORD JOHN RUSSELL 

From the engraving by D. J. Pound. 
After the photo by Mayall. 

A CARICATURE OF CAVOUR .... 

From a contemporary print. 

MASSIMO d'aZEGLIO 

From a contemporary print. 

THE MILANESE MONUMENT TO THE' SARDINIAN 
ARMY ....... 

From a photograph by Vela. 

THE MONUMENT TO CARLO ALBERTO 

By Marocchetti, Turin. 
From a photo by Brogi. 

PALAZZO CAVOUR, TURIN .... 

Where Cavour was born and died. 
From a photograph. 

PALAZZO REALE, TURIN .... 

From a photo by Brogi. 

VICTOR EMMANUEL II 

From a contemporary print. 

PRINCE NAPOLEON 

From a contemporary print. 



PAGE 
158. 

168 • 
178. 

196 t 



206 ^ 
216^ 

226* 

240* 
242'-' 



xviii Illustrations 



GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI AS A PIEDMONTESE 

GENERAL 246 . 

From a contemporary print, 1859. 

PALAZZO MADAMA, TURIN .... 25O 

From a photo by Alinari. 

PJIINCESS CLOTILDE 252 

From a painting by Herbert. 

THE BATTLE OF SAN MARTINO . . . 276 

VISCOUNT PALMERSTON .... 3OO . 

From the engraving by D. J. Pound. 
After the photo by Mayall. 

FRANCESCO CRISPI 308 

From a photo by Alinari. 

THE HEADQUARTERS OF GARIBALDI AT QUARTO 3IO . 

From a photo by AHnari. 

NINO BIXIO 316 

From a photograph. 

WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE . . . . 318 

From the engraving by D. J. Pound. 
After the photo by Mayall. 

MEETING OF VICTOR EMMANUEL II. WITH 

GARIBALDI ...... 322 

From the painting by Pietro Aldi in the Palazzo 

della Signoria, Siena. 
From a photo by Alinari. 

FACSIMILE OF THE PROCLAMATION OF THE 

DEATH OF CAVOUR .... 34O 



Illustrations xix 



THE FUNERAL OF CAVOUR 

From a drawing by Carlo Chessal 



PAGE 



344 V 



superga: basilica 346 

(The burial-place of the Savoy Dynasty.) 
From a photo by Alinari. 

THE HALL AND STAIRS IN THE PALAZZO 

MADAMA, TURIN 348^ 

From a photo by Brogi. 

BARONE BETTINO RICASOLI .... 356 

From a contemporary print, i860. 

MAZZINI 358 v^ 

From a photo by Alinari. 

ENRICO CIALDINI 36O1/ 

From a contemporary print, 1859. 

ST. Peter's and the Vatican, rome . . 362 m 

From a photo by Alinari. 

NAPOLEON III 366"^ 

From a contemporary print, 1859. 

THE MONUMENT TO VICTOR EMMANUEL II. IN 

ROME ....... 368 

PALAZZO MONTECITORIO, ROME. SEAT OF THE 

ITALIAN PARLIAMENT . .-- . . 372- 

From a photo by Alinari. 

MAP OF ITALY BEFORE THE FRENCH REVO- 
LUTION at end 

MAP OF THE KINGDOM OF ITALY IN 1 874 at end ^ 



THE FIRST SHOCK TO THE OLD EDIFICE 

Gik il procelloso turbo 

Freme inquieto suU' Alpi, e s'avvicina, 
Gi^ desta la tacente 

Fra le mine liberta latina. 

Giovanni Fantoni (1755-1807): Odi.^ 

' And now the furious whirlwind comes roaring over the Alps, and Latin 
liberty, so long silent, bestirs herself among the ruins. 



CHAPTER I 

THE FIRST SHOCK TO THE OLD EDIFICE 

The secular divisions of Italy — Condition of the peninsula in 
the second half of the i8th century: lack of union, of inde- 
pendence, and of liberty — Rebound of the French Revolution 
— Overthrow of all the States of Italy — Increase of the 
middle class and its political aspirations — The generation 
born in the Napoleonic period will be the one that is to make 
the Italy of to-day. 

THE highest and most essential possessions of 
a nation are independence of the foreigner, 
poHtical Hberty at home, and union. All three 
were lacking to the Italy of the i8th century. 

To discover a imited Italy it is necessary to go 
back in thought to the times of the Roman Empire. 
The political disintegration of Italy began with 
the invasion of the Northern nations, and par- 
ticularly with that day of the year 568 on which 
the King of the Lombards, Alboin, from the height 
of the Julian Alps, looked down upon the rich 
provinces that were to be the prey of his people. 
For the Lombards never succeeded in. conquering 
all the peninsula. From the first it was divided 
into two parts, at war with each other: the North- 
3 



4 Cavour 

ern part, conquered by the Lombards, and the 
Southern part, which remained under the Roman 
Empire of the East. Afterwards, when the power 
of the Byzantines in Italy was diminishing, other 
States arose in the territories formtdy subject 
to them — the RepubHc of Venice, the temporal 
dominion of the Popes — and so division became 
more pronounced. And in the feudal period the 
substitution everywhere of local authorities for 
the central power resulted in a still greater splitting 
up of political life. 

So long as the rest of Europe was in a similar 
condition the misfortune was not very serious; 
but when, in the age of the Renaissance, France and 
Spain managed to free themselves from the politi- 
cal anarchy of the Middle Ages, and organized 
themselves into powerful monarchies, a divided 
Italy soon became their battle ground and experi- 
enced nothing but a series of humiliations and 
calamities. These sorrowful consequences of 
political division were emphasized in the early 
years of the i6th century by that great thinker, 
that true political genius, Niccolo Macchiavelli ; 
even then he proclaimed the necessity for the 
union of Italy. Yet for several centuries it still 
remained a dream. 

The long struggle for ascendency between 
France and Spain in the i6th century ended with 
the triumph of Spain ; and several regions of Italy, 
her richest and most flourishing provinces, fell 
under the Spanish dominion. Independence once 



The First Shock to the Old Edifice 5 

lost, it was not easily to be recovered by a divided 
and discordant Italy; even when, in the i8th 
century, the Spanish domination came to an end, 
other Powers found means to establish a foothold, 
in the peninsula. Without reckoning Corsica 
(which passed to France because the Republic of 
Genoa, realizing its powerlessness to check the 
rebellion of the island, had ceded it to Louis XV. 
in 1768) there was, in the very heart of Northern 
Italy, a large territory dependent on the foreigner 
— Lombardy, subject to Austria. The population 
was estimated at little more than a million, but it 
was a rich country, flourishing by agriculture, by 
commerce, and by learning, and it had for its 
capital Milan, one of the greatest centres of 
Italian Hfe. 

The rest of the peninsula was divided into eight 
States. Two of these were kingdoms — the King- 
dom of Naples and Sicily (under the Bourbon 
dynasty), which numbered six million inhabitants; 
and the so-called Kingdom of Sardinia, which 
comprised, besides that island. Piedmont, Savoy 
and the district around Nice, with a total popula- 
tion of little more than three millions and was 
governed by the dynasty of Savoy, which had 
its seat at Turin in Piedmont. Both were absolute 
monarchies. They relied on the nobility and 
clergy, and took little account of the rest of the 
nation. 

Next came the Papal States in the centre of the 
peninsula (with two and a half million inhabitants), 



6 Cavour 

governed exclusively by priests, who regarded 
them as an ecclesiastical benefice to be exploited, 
and occupied themselves exclusively with the 
embellishment of Rome, in order that the splendour 
of the papal power might be enhanced. 

There were also the two aristocratic repub- 
lics of Venice and Genoa. Genoa had still a 
flourishing commerce, but was reduced in re- 
spect of territorial power to the coast-line of 
Liguria, with a population of four hundred 
thousand. Venice held a vast territory on the 
mainland, extending to the Adda, a few miles 
from Milan; she preserved her old possessions 
of Istria, Dalmatia, Albania and the Ionian Is- 
lands, with a total population of about three 
millions; but her commerce had greatly decayed, 
her military forces were in the worst condition, 
her ancient prestige was passing away; yet the 
dominant patriciate thought of nothing but its 
own amusement. 

The Grand Duchy of Tuscany numbered 
nearly a million inhabitants and had lately 
passed under the new Hapsburg- Lorraine dynasty, 
represented then by a great reformer, Peter 
Leopold I. 

Last in the list come the two Duchies of Parma 
and Modena, which had about four hundred 
thousand inhabitants each. There were also 
some small States, such as the Republic of Lucca, 
the Republic of San Marino, the principalities of 
Monaco and Piombino, and the Maltese group 



The First Shock to the Old Edifice 7 

of islands, at that time belonging to the Knights 
of St. John. ' 

Each State had its own history and special 
interests; the mutual jealousies of the rulers kept 
alive the old causes of dispute that existed between 
the several communities. Moreover, the very 
conformation of the peninsula necessarily hin- 
dered, so long as means of communication were 
slight, the growth of common ideas or interests or 
customs. Geographical causes intensified the 
effect of political divisions; and from one genera- 
tion to another the people of the several regions 
drifted further apart. 

The one national bond was literature. From 
Dante's day it assumed that office; we may even 
say that it was the great Florentine poet himself, 
for in exile from his own city he realized what 
Italian brotherhood was, and he, first of all, pro- 
claimed in precise terms the national sentiment. 
Thenceforward, frequent complaints of Italy's 
gloomy fate were heard from many illustrious 
writers; yet those few exalted souls who dreamed 
of the reconstitution of the nation contented them- 
selves with hinting at it vaguely and did -not 
suffer their thoughts to dwell too much upon it, 
for the simultaneous overthrow of all the old 
governments seemed to them impossible. But in 
the 1 8th century a poet of strong imagination and 
rebellious temperament seemed to presage the 

' Malta was taken from the Knights of St. John by Napoleon 
Bonaparte in 1798, but in 1800 it was occupied by the English.' 



8 Cavour 

new Italy. This was Victor Alfieri (i 749-1 803), 
whose thrilling verse accelerated the formation of 
a national consciousness. Otherwise the influence 
of literature at that time was very limited, for 
the cultured were few, and most of them enjoyed 
too many privileges to feel any desire for the 
change of existing institutions, 
s In every State there were two classes of privi- 
leged citizens — the nobles and the clergy. For 
them were all the honours, all the offices; already 
the richest, they were exempt from a large part 
of the taxes. And this high society, so greatly 
privileged, led a life of ease and idleness — that 
artificial life of show, of ceremony, one might 
almost say of continuous theatricalism, which 
characterized the Italy of the i8th century. 

In Northern Italy, and also in Tuscany, 
there was in the 18th century a pronounced 
development of commerce and industry; and 
presently, as a consequence, arose a middle class. 
Its members advanced in education as their 
wealth increased. They were fired with enthusi- 
asm as they learned of their country's former 
glories. But it was humiliating to contrast those 
glories with the present misery. On the other 
hand, becoming richer and more cultured, they 
had greater opportunities of meeting the nobility, 
and by this contact they were led to a deeper 
appreciation of the oppressive and odious char- 
acter of the privileges from which they were ex- 
cluded. Just at that time, chiefly by the work of 




VITTORIO ALFIERI 

From the painting by Fabre in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence 

From a photo by Alinarl 



The First Shock to the Old Edifice 9 

French writers, there was being diffused through 
the world a current of new ideas, whose object 
was especially to lessen social disorganization, to 
improve the judicial system and financial admin- 
istration, and to promote toleration in the 
sphere of religion and politics. Such ideas pen- 
etrated easily into this newly formed Italian 
middle class, which quickly acclaimed, as the 
true interpreter of its thought, the Milanese 
poet Joseph Parini (i 729-1 799). In his little 
poem // Giorno, Parini satirized with incom- 
parable himiour the useless, vicious life of the 
aristocracy, and contrasted with it the labor- 
ious virtues of the other social classes. Such 
criticisms aroused vague aspirations after a 
new order of things. The new ideas produced 
a real and wholesome effect, especially in the 
intellectual world of Milan and Naples; and 
some princes, relying on this current of public 
opinion, introduced reforms in their States. But 
the middle class, almost the only social class that 
entertained ideas of the kind, was too small in 
numbers and politically too insignificant to create 
a strong public opinion. In the Papal States, 
and in the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily, commerce 
and industry were almost entirely lacking except 
in a few centres. In these States a middle class 
scarcely existed, and the privileged orders were 
confronted by none but the populace, which 
naturally was more numerous and more wretched 
than in the rest of the peninsula; the towns 



10 Cavour 

swarmed with beggars, who hved on the charity 
of the convents and of the nobles. 



The French Revolution served to rouse Italy 
from her torpor. For the Italian middle class, 
animated merely by vague desires, it provided 
a whole system of ideas, and gave precision to 
indefinite aspirations. There were to be no 
more absolute monarchies. Not the king, but 
the people, should be the source of sovereignty 
and the spokesman of the nation. Before the law, 
that expression of the popular will, no distinction 
of birth or religion should be taken into account. 
These maxims of political liberty and civil equal- 
ity were diffused more widely through the penin- 
sula when, after the outbreak of war between 
France and Austria (to which the Kingdom of 
Sardinia had allied itself), the French armies 
descended victoriously into Italy, and overthrew 
the old governments. The Italian middle class, 
this new social element possessed of all the enthu- 
siasm of youth, gave an ardent welcome to the 
new ideas and intended to carry them out. It 
was during those days, and in the first new State 
that arose in Italy after these French invasions 
(that is to say, in the Cispadane Republic com- 
prising Modena and Reggio, which had revolted 
from their own Duke, and Bologna and Ferrara, 
taken by the French from the Pope), that there 
fluttered out for the first time the Italian tricolour, 




GIUSEPPE PARiNI 
From a contemporary print 



The First Shock to the Old Edifice ii 

in which the white and red of the French flag 
were reproduced, but green, a colour already 
familiar in local military equipment, was substi- 
tuted for the blue. The lightning of new hopes 
flickered round the emblem of a new national 
ideal. 

From the day (January 7, 1797) when the 
Cispadane Congress of Reggio-Emilia adopted 
this national standard, not a year passed without 
some deed, or some literary utterance indicating 
the way along which the great ideal was moving 
towards fulfilment. Strong currents of passion 
and hope poured through the minds of men; the 
masses of the people began to take an interest in 
public life, and the more distinguished citizens 
served an apprenticeship in the exercise of power 
by taking part in the first political assemblies 
which then arose in Italy. 

It is true that in 1799 the French were driven 
out of Italy by the allied armies of Austria and 
Russia, and that the republican governments 
which the French had set up, having too slight a 
foundation in the country, were quickly over- 
thrown. But even in these circumstances the 
new movement went on its way, for many Italians 
who had compromised themselves in support of 
the new ideas emigrated to France. Through 
these exiles from all parts of the peninsula, not 
only were the new aspirations for political and 
social reform invigorated, but also the national 
sentiment was more effectively reinforced. Some 



12 Cavour 

even began to think that only with independence 
could an end be put to the ills of the peninsula, 
and that to attain and preserve independence 
unity was needed. So that when, after Napoleon's 
victory of Marengo (June 14, 1800), these exiles 
returned into Italy, theirs was a widened political 
horizon. 

In a few years Napoleon conquered the whole 
of the Italian peninsula. All the old governments 
were overthrown ; the House of Savoy took refuge 
in the island of Sardinia, and the Bourbons of 
Naples fled into Sicily ; the Pope was made pris- 
oner and led into France; the Grand Duke of 
Tuscany and the Dukes of Modena and Parma 
left Italy; the old republics were abolished. In 
the face of changes so rapid and so far-reaching, 
those ideals which once had seemed impossible 
to realize now assumed a more practical aspect. 
But Napoleon did not reunite the whole peninsula 
in a single State. He made of it three parts: 
Piedmont, Liguria, Parma and Piacenza, Tuscany 
and Rome were annexed to the French Empire; 
Lombardy, Venice, Reggio and Modena, Romagna 
and the Marches formed the so-called Kingdom of 
Italy, which had Napoleon for its King, and for 
its Viceroy his step-son, Eugene Beauhamais, 
who resided at Milan; the Kingdom of Naples 
was at first under Napoleon's brother, Joseph 
Bonaparte, afterwards under his brother-in-law, 
Joachim Murat. By this division Napoleon had 
not given full satisfaction to the national sentiment, 




NAPOLEON AT ARCOLA 

From the painting by Gros in the Louvre, Paris 

From a photo by Alinari 



The First Shock to the Old Edifice 13 

which was also wounded by the universal pre- 
dominance of the French ; but even this fact, and 
the ill-humours that resulted from it, helped to 
develop in ever greater degree among the more 
magnanimous minds the aspiration after national 
independence. 

Meantime advanced every day that transforma- 
tion of society which was afterwards to supply 
the firmer basis of the Italian Revival. In those 
years the reawakening of Italian life was prodigious. 
Magnificent streets were opened; commerce and 
industry were favoured, agriculture encouraged, 
learning promoted, splendid monuments erected. 
And, while the Civil Code reorganized society on 
new principles of equality, the increase of general 
activity gave origin to an ever more numerous, 
wealthier, and more cultured middle class, which, 
profiting by the abolition of feudalism and the 
suppression of many convents, acquired a con- 
siderable share of landed property, and was able 
by and by to take the place of an overthrown 
aristocracy. Many Italians distinguished them- 
selves at that time in the administration of public 
affairs; many showed their valour on the battle- 
field and reached the highest ranks in the army. 
To the thoughtlessness and futility of the preceding 
period succeeded a more serious view of life and 
its duties. 

These years were decisive in the preparation 
of the new life of Italy. The old organization 
of the peninsula received then the first formidable 



14 Cavour 

shock; the prestige of tradition was shattered, 
and under the impressions derived from these 
events there grew up a new generation, destined 
to accompHsh the great work of the Italian 
Revival. ' 

' To record only the three greatest builders of that wonderful 
edifice: Joseph Mazzini, bom June 22, 1805; Joseph Garibaldi, 
July 4, 1807; Camillo Cavour, August 10, 1810. 



wm 




NAPOLEON AS FIRST CONSUL 

From the painting by Isabey, at Versailles 

Frpm a photo by Alinari 



II 



THE RESTORATION AND THE MILITARY REVOLUTIONS 
OF 182O-182I 

. . . dell' Italia ando un rumor 

d'oppressori e di frementi, 

di speranze e di dissidi, 

di tumulti annunziator. 
Ma confuso, ma fugace 

fu quel grido; e ratto a sperderlo 

la parola usci dei re; 

che narro composta in pace 

tutta Italia, ai troni immobili, 

plaudir lieta e giurar f^ . . . 
. . . Non e lieta, ma pensosa; 

non v' e plauso, ma silenzio; 

non V* e pace, ma terror. 
Giovanni Berchet (1783-1851): II romito del Cenisio.^ 

' There issued from Italy a rumour that told of oppressions and chafings, 
of hopes and dissensions and tumults. But it was a confused and fleeting 
cry, and swiftly the word of kings went forth to suppress it. All Italy lay 
in peace, they said — an Italy of gladsome praise and loyal faith to their 
unshakable thrones. . . . Italy is not glad, but pensive. There is silence 
there, not praise; not peace, but terror. — The Hermit of Cents. 



IS 




JOACHIM MURAT 
From an engraving 



CHAPTER II 

THE RESTORATION AND THE MH^ITARY REVOLUTIONS 
OF 1820-182 1 

The war of independence proclaimed by Joachim Murat; King 
Joachim's miserable end — The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies 
— Growth of the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Austrian 
dominions — The Papal States and the smaller States — 
Character of the Restoration — Napoleon I.'s prediction — 
The revolution of Naples of 1820; intervention of Austria 
and restoration of absolutism — The Piedmontese revolution 
of 1 821; Charles Albert — ^Triumph of the reaction — Patriot- 
martyrs. 

THE 31st of March, 1814, is a date that will 
remain for ever memorable in history. On 
that day the sovereigns allied against France 
made, at the head of their troops, their famous 
entry into Paris. The man who had deemed 
Europe too small a theatre for his acts was to be 
shut up in the little island of Elba, while the 
whole colossal edifice that he had raised was 
falling ! 

In Italy, of the governments that had arisen 
during the Napoleonic period, there remained in 
existence only that of King Joachim Murat, who 
in view of the fall of Napoleon's fortunes had 
abandoned him, and had come to an agreement 
with Austria. But King Joachim, a man of 



I 8 Cavour 

impressionable and vacillating character, was 
soon alarmed by the news that reached him of the 
Congress of Vienna, where the great Powers 
showed slight disposition to leave him in posses- 
sion of the Kingdom of Naples. He doubted 
whether Austria herself would care to keep the 
promise made to him in the days of struggle. So 
he became reconciled with his brother-in-law, and 
when Napoleon accomplished his wonderful return 
from Elba to Paris, Joachim, who handled political 
questions in the manner of a brilliant commander 
of cavalry, decided to face the situation sword in 
hand and to make certain of retaining his crown. 
He seems to have understood the change that was 
being wrought in Italian society; and wishing to 
utilize the new aspirations of the people, he invited 
the Italians to a war of independence (March 
15, 1815). But the Italians did not respond to 
his appeal, for even the patriots themselves saw, 
in the plan of this alien king, nothing but an 
audacious and aggressive enterprise. A few poets, 
like Alexander Manzoni, stood alone in praising 
his action. Joachim Murat invaded the Papal 
States, and then advanced by way of Romagna as 
far as the Po, but, having learned that the coasts of 
his own Kingdom of Naples were threatened by 
the English, he beat a retreat with the Austrians 
in close pursuit. Defeated on May 2d and 3d in 
attempts to stop the Austrians between Tolentino 
and Macerata, he re-entered the Kingdom of 
Naples, where the partisans of the Bourbons were 



The Restoration 19 

already raising their heads again. Desertions 
from his army now became so numerous that he 
lost all hope, and on May 22, 1815, he renounced 
the throne. The Austrians thereupon restored 
the government of Ferdinand of Bourbon. That 
Prince was glad enough to leave Sicily for Naples, 
which he entered on June 9th. 

Meantime, Joachim Murat had gone to France. 
After the disaster of Waterloo he took refuge in 
Corsica, and from that base he attempted the 
reconquest of Naples. On September 28th, with 
two hundred and fifty companions, he set sail 
from Ajaccio, but a storm dispersed his little fleet. 
The ship which he was aboard with nineteen 
companions came to shore at Pizzo in Calabria. 
After a fruitless attempt to rouse the population 
in his favour, he tried to make his way towards 
Monteleone; but some armed partisans of the 
Bourbons followed him from Pizzo and captured 
him. A few days later, by order from Naples, 
he was tried before a military tribunal and con- 
demned to death. Led into a little enclosure of 
the castle, where the soldiers who had to shoot 
him were drawn up in file, he refused to be blind- 
folded, and calmly faced death, saying: "Spare 
the face, aim at the heart!" (October 13, 18 15). 



By the death of Murat the old King Ferdinand 
assured to himself his lately reacquired throne 
of Naples. His next thought was to rid himself 



20 Cavour 

of the annoyance which the pecuHar political 
constitution of Sicily caused him. Through all 
the various dominations that had succeeded one 
another there, Sicily had preserved her ancient 
Parliament; in fact in 1 8 12, as the result of an 
agitation encouraged by England, she had obtained 
a real constitution, modelled upon English lines, 
with a House of Lords and a House of Commons. 
But King Ferdinand, now that he had recovered 
Naples, no longer wished to assemble the Sicilian 
Parliament. On the contrary, he meant to 
abolish the division that had always been main- 
tained in the administration of the two parts of 
his dominions. On December i8th, therefore, he 
published a decree by which he ordained that all 
his dominions on both sides of the Straits of Messina 
should constitute a single realm with the name of 
the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies ; and consequently 
he dropped the titles "Ferdinand IV. of Naples" 
and "Ferdinand IH. of Sicily," which he had 
borne up to that time, in order to assume the 
title "Ferdinand I., King of the Two Sicilies."' 
This change of name involved the abolition of the 
Sicilian Parliament and of the other institutions 
that were peculiar to Sicily. 

'When, by the revolution known as "the Vespers" (1282), 
Sicily separated itself from Naples, the Angevin kings of Naples, 
who formerly possessed it and bore the title "King of Sicily," 
were unwilling to alter their title and continued to call themselves 
kings of Sicily, although they possessed the island nc longer. On 
the other hand, Sicily constituted a kingdom by itself. So 
thenceforth there were two "kingdoms of Sicily." 



The Restoration 21 

Here, then, was not simply a return to the past, 
but a change for the worse for Sicily, which be- 
came a mere province of Naples and lay at the 
mercy of Neapolitan officials. Moreover, every 
principle of French institutions which was favour- 
able to the royal power was not only maintained 
at Naples but was applied also to Sicily; the rest 
was abolished. So the restored monarchy had 
now at its disposal a power even greater and more 
absolute than that which it held before the revo- 
lution. In order to preserve this power more 
easily it entered into an alliance with the Papacy, 
and by the concordat of 1817 gave back to the 
Church that privileged position which she enjoyed 
in the kingdom before the reforms of the eighteenth 
century. 

The other kingdom that existed in Italy before 
the revolution, that is to say, the Kingdom of 
Sardinia, not only had been restored in May, 
1 8 14, in favour of the House of Savoy, but had 
obtained from the Congress of Vienna a remark- 
able extension of territory in the shape of the old 
Republic of Genoa. Its sovereign, whose return 
to Turin had been warmly acclaimed by his 
subjects, was Victor Emmanuel I. He was 
already more than fifty years old, and he had 
spent his life in an atmosphere very different from 
the new ideas that were diffused by the French 
Revolution. So he was unable to appreciate the 
changes that had come about in his country 
during his absence — changes which were truly 



22 Cavour 

enormous, since his people, perhaps through the 
longer duration of French rule, perhaps through 
nearness and affinity to France, had, much more 
than the population of Naples, become imbued 
with modern political principles. The sovereign, 
however, announced that he proposed to disregard 
all the changes made in his absence, and imagined 
that he would be showing great generosity if he 
gave an amnesty to all who had been concerned 
in them. The government, then, proposed to 
return upon the past; and in doing so aroused a 
lively discontent among the more cultured classes, 
who, although well disposed to their ancient, 
glorious and well-intentioned dynasty, deplored 
this policy, which w^as rendered still more repug- 
nant by a feeble and pedantic administration. 

The Genoese, after they had seen with grief 
the disappearance of their autonomy, regarded 
themselves as conquered by Piedmont; so the 
old rivalries between the two provinces were not 
merely kept alive after the annexation, but were 
actually aggravated. Genoa became a centre of 
opposition to the Piedmontese government. 

King Victor Emmanuel I. had four daughters, 
but no son; inasmuch as the House of Savoy is 
subject to the Salic Law, which excludes women 
from the succession, he acknowledged as his heir 
his brother Charles Felix, who had no children. 
Thus the extinction of the eldest branch of the 
House of Savoy was seen to be imminent. There 
was a collateral branch of the family, the branch 



The Restoration 23 

of Savoy-Carignano, represented at that time by 
a youth of little more than sixteen years, Charles 
Albert, bom on October 2, 1798. When the 
French occupied Piedmont, his father did not 
follow the royal family into Sardinia, but stayed 
at Turin, and afterwards went to Paris, where he 
died in 1800, scarcely thirty-one years old. Hence 
Charles Albert was left fatherless when only two 
years of age. Afterwards, when his mother 
married a second husband (a French count), he 
was sent to college at Paris and later at Geneva. 
As a youth he was therefore untouched by do- 
mestic influences and affections. At that time 
nobody would have believed that this prince would 
succeed to the throne ; for the eldest branch of the 
family was represented by several brothers, still 
young. But when, in 18 14, the House of Savoy 
recovered its old dominions and returned to 
Turin, his position in the family had changed, 
for there was no longer any hope of a male heir 
in the eldest line. He therefore found himself 
suddenly regarded as the heir presumptive to the 
throne, and recognized as such by the Congress 
of Vienna. As he was young, and had lived in a 
French atmosphere, naturally he could not ap- 
prove the retrograde policy adopted by the govern- 
ment. The Piedmontese Liberals began to base 
their hopes upon him. 

If in Piedmont it was deplored that the govern' 
ment should follow a reactionary policy, much 
more gloomy was the situation in other parts of 



24 Cavour 

the great basin of the Po which had fallen under 
foreign dominion. Though before the revolution 
Austria possessed (in Italy) only Lombardy, she 
now obtained the Venetian territory also, for the 
Republic of Venice was not restored. Lombardy- 
Venetia had been the greatest centre of Italian 
life diiring the Napoleonic period ; Milan had been 
the capital of a kingdom which boasted the pro- 
phetic title "Kingdom of Italy." This region, 
when it passed under Austrian sway, preserved 
the title of "kingdom," but had been forced to 
exchange the name "Italy " for that of " Lombardy- 
Venetia." It was governed by a viceroy, resident 
at Milan — the Archduke of Austria, Rainer, a 
brother of the Emperor. Side by side with the 
State officials, there were set up two councils 
composed of the prominent men of the country — 
the Lombard Congregation and the Venetian 
Congregation. In general, the administration 
was regular and efficient, showing regard for the 
material progress of the subject provinces; it 
might indeed have served as a model to some of 
the other Italian States. But that was no longer 
enough, for during the existence of the Napoleonic 
Kingdom of Italy, the sentiment of nationality 
had been at length awakened in Italian minds. 
And the Emperor Francis I., with his narrow 
mind, his absolutist tendencies, his cold, hard 
nature, was certainly not the man to mitigate 
the friction between government and people. At 
the Congress of Vienna he had even secured that the 




O o 



. 6 

i s 



The Restoration 25 

Duchy of Parma and Piacenza should be assigned 
to his daughter, Marie Louise, wife of Napoleon 
I., for the term of her life.' The ex-Empress of 
France became Duchess of Parma, preserved 
many of its French institutions and would have 
liked to govern with clemency, if she had not been 
overruled by Austria, who in the Congress of 
Vienna had gained the right to keep a garrison in 
Piacenza, and was, in fact, the real sovereign — 
the more so as the Austrian marshal Neipperg, 
who stood at the side of Marie Louise, soon made 
her forget her consort exiled in St. Helena and 
her son detained at Vienna. 

The Duchy of Modena, too, had passed under 
princes of the House of Austria. The last de- 
scendant of the Estensi, ancient lords of that ter- 
ritory, had married one of the sons of the Empress 
Maria Theresa of Austria. Of this union was 
born the Archduke Francis, who in the Congress 
of Vienna was recognized as Duke of Modena with 
the title of Francis IV. He was a man of ability 
and ambition, and in private life bore himself 
well, but he was persuaded that his first duty was 
to save society from Liberal ideas. 

The Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinand HI., 
was the Emperor's brother. After regaining 

' The Bourbon dynasty, which had ruled Parma and Piacenza 
before the revolution, now held, conditionally, the territory of 
the old Republic of Lucca, transformed into a duchy. When, 
on Marie Louise's death, it should get Parma back, it was to 
cede Lucca to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. These events 
happened in 1847. 



26 Cavour 

possession of his dominions, Ferdinand restored 
to them those institutions of his father, Peter 
Leopold I., which in the preceding century had 
indicated so much progress. Hence the contrast 
with the new ideas was much less pronounced 
there than in the other States of the peninsula. 
So the opposition was much less spirited, and the 
government showed great mildness. 

There had been serious danger that the Papal 
States would not be restored in their entirety ; for 
Austria, in order to dominate Italy more securely, 
wished to retain Romagna, which she had occu- 
pied during the war; but Cardinal Consalvi, who 
went to the Congress of Vienna as the representa- 
tive of Pius VII., cleverly frustrated the Austrian 
design, and Romagna was restored to the Pope 
with the rest of his territories. This diplomatic 
success assured to Consalvi the control of the 
government during the whole pontificate of Pius 
VII. He sought to moderate the excesses of the 
reaction, but was able to do little good in that 
direction; for the Pope, though he too was ani- 
mated by good intentions, was weak of character 
and easily swayed by the reactionary influences 
among which he lived. The Inquisition was re- 
established; the Jesuits were recalled and set to 
work again; the worst features of the pontifical 
government in preceding centuries were revived 
without delay. French legislation was swept 
away, and the old obscure, confused laws were 
restored. Hatred of French institutions went 



The Restoration 27 

even to the length of suppressing vaccination and 
the Hghting of the streets, because those novelties 
had been introduced from France. The laity 
were again excluded from office; the whole ad- 
ministration was put once more into the hands 
of ecclesiastics. 



In general the political map of the Italy of 
18 1 5 was somewhat simplified in comparison with 
that of 1789, but the chief changes were due to 
the disappearance of the two republics of Genoa 
and Venice. The Kingdom of Sardinia was in- 
creased by the territory of Genoa, and thus was 
strengthened that dynasty of Savoy which had 
always upheld the honour of Italian arms. But 
the extension of the dominions of Austria was 
much more remarkable; for, adding to Lombardy 
the wide expanse of the Venetian mainland, she 
came to possess the richest and strategically the 
strongest provinces of Italy. Hence she was 
easily able to make her predominance felt over 
the whole peninsula, especially as members of the 
Hapsburg family ruled also at Parma, at Modena, 
and in Tuscany. Prince Clement von Metternich, 
then in the full flower of middle life, had been 
First Minister of Austria for some years. En- 
dowed with the finesse and astuteness that are 
so much valued in the sphere of diplomacy, he 
had neither depth of knowledge nor remarkable 
intelligence. He was never willing to recognize 



28 Cavour 

that human society is a Hving and continually 
developing organism. He based his policy on 
immobility — a system all the more to his taste 
since it was well adapted to his indolent nature. 
And under the close vigilance of the Austrian 
government, the restored sovereigns of Italy 
followed the same course. 

In the course of the reaction against the recent 
revolution, the clergy were naturally regaining 
a great ascendency. The so-called alliance of 
Throne and Altar was formed at that time for 
joint resistance to the common enemy. The 
censorship of the Press contributed notably to 
this end, for it was at once political and religious. 
In Italy no political newspaper was permitted 
except the official Gazettes of the several govern- 
ments, by means of which readers were informed 
of all the most insignificant events in the most 
remote countries — in the Indies or in China — 
but never received the slightest information about 
nearer and more interesting events. 

The better to maintain the political system of 
the Restoration, the three sovereigns of Austria, 
Russia and Prussia joined in the Holy AUiance, 
to which the governments of France and England 
also adhered for some time. Thus the five great 
Powers of Europe assumed control of European 
affairs with a strong determination to maintain 
the restored regime intact. Yet it lasted for less 
than one generation ! 

Napoleon I., who in the inactive life to which 



The Restoration 29 

he was condemned at St. Helena meditated on 
the political conditions of his times, foretold 
clearly, even then, the future of Italy : 

Italy, shut up within her own natural boundaries 
and separated from the rest of Europe by the sea and 
by lofty mountains, seems destined to form a great and 
important nation. . . . Unity of language, customs 
and literature will lead, in the more or less distant 
future, to a union of the inhabitants under one single 
government. . . . Although Rome lacks many quali- 
ties that are desirable in the capital of a great country, 
it is yet beyond doubt that the Italians will some day 
make Rome the seat of their government and the 
metropolis of their State. 

But in the attainment of that ideal, which 
appeared as a dream to the minds of the elect, 
what alternations of hope, and grief, and happiness ! 

The mass of the nation, especially the peasants, 
were still too ignorant to feel any enthusiasm 
about the glorious records of the past, or to under- 
stand the great ideas of liberty and independence. 
They took no interest in politics, and remained in 
great part unaffected by the national movement. 
Most of the aristocracy also were either indifferent 
or hostile, for they saw in the new revolution the 
certain loss of those few privileges which they 
had regained at the Restoration, and which they 
were disinclined to sacrifice to sentimental aspira- 
tions. Only the more intelligent and more cul- 
tured among them, understanding that a political 



30 Cavour 

transformation was by this time a necessity, 
decided to give it their support. But the pre- 
ponderant part in the Italian Revival was taken 
by the bourgeoisie — this new social class which 
was just developing while fresh aspirations dif- 
fused themselves through Italy, and which ended 
by becoming completely imbued with them. 

The first open signs of hostility to the restored 
regime came from the ranks of the army. During 
the Napoleonic period — that continuous whirl- 
wind of war — many young men who felt the exu- 
berance of life had ardently adopted the career 
of arms as one that offered means of rising in the 
world and of satisfying every ambition. These 
young officers felt themselves stifled by the general 
torpor that characterized the life of Europe during 
the Restoration — 

Questo secol morte, al quale incombe 
Tanta nebbia di tedio, ^ 

as Leopardi described it in his poem To Angela 
Mai, written in the early days of 1820. 

Though many people were discontented with 
the administration, they had no legal means of 
opposing it or of trying to make the governments 
change their methods. They could not even 
express their opinions openly, for that would 
certainly have led to their arrest. The one course 
that offered any hope of change was the forming 

* This dead era, over which broods an immense fog of ennui. 



Military Revolutions of 1820-21 31 

of secret societies which might become strong 
enough to impose their wishes on the governments. 

Of these secret societies the most powerful was 
that of the Carbonari.' To this day its origins 
are involved in obscurity. Perhaps it was an 
offshoot of the Freemasons. Under the rule of 
Joachim Murat, it was firmly rooted in the King- 
dom of Naples; after the return of the Bourbons 
it spread still more widely, especially among the 
ranks of the army. 

The early triimiph of the Spanish revolution of 
1820 made a deep impression in Naples, a region 
linked to Spain by so many memories and affinities. 
The leaders of the Carbonari now decided to act. 
On July 2, 1820, in the little town of Nola at the 
foot of Vesuvius, two sub-lieutenants (Morelli 
and Silvati) set on foot the insurrection. Their 
demand was that the King should grant a consti- 
tution. Followed by little more than a hundred 
soldiers, they went out from Nola and advanced 
on Avellino. The governor, Colonel de Conciliis, 
was himself a Carbonaro. After some hesitation 
he joined them, with the little garrison that he 
commanded, and moved towards the capital. 
Meanwhile in several provinces the Liberals were 
raising their heads and showing themselves favour- 
able to the insurrection. On the night of July 
5th, General Guglielmo Pepe, fearing arrest be- 
cause he was widely known as a Liberal, left 
Naples and put himself at the head of the insurg- 

» Literally " The Charcoal Burners." 



32 Cavour 

ents. At once the insurrection assumed such pro- 
portions in the capital itself that King Ferdinand, 
fearing the loss of his throne, granted the consti- 
tution (July 6th). Never was victory more easily 
and swiftly gained. 

But the erection of a constitutional government 
in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies alarmed the 
Powers of the Holy Alliance, and especially 
Austria, who saw the tranquillity of her Italian 
dominions threatened. In order to get authority 
for armed intervention, Austria called together 
a Congress at Laybach, the capital of Camiola, 
and invited to it also King Ferdinand I., whom she 
knew to be desirous of restoring absolutism. At 
Laybach, in January, 1821, the fate of Naples 
was decided. The Holy Alliance, declaring that 
it had the right and the duty of preserving peace 
in Europe, and that the condition of the Kingdom 
of the Two Sicilies threatened the security of 
all governments, directed an Austrian army to 
enter Neapolitan territory and restore order. On 
his part, Ferdinand I. wrote to Naples inviting his 
subjects to welcome amicably the troops of his 
faithful ally, the Emperor Francis I. of Austria. 

The Neapolitan Parliament, which no longer 
trusted the King, thought fit to declare that no 
credence should be attached to his words, since 
he was not free amongst the sovereigns of the 
North; and it resolved to defend the Kingdom 
against the Austrian invasion. But nothing was 
ready. The ministry was largely made up of 



Military Revolutions of 1 820-2 1 33 

weak and unreliable men. The delusive views of 
men who were imconscious of the gravity of the 
situation prevailed in Parliament and in the 
newspaper press. The army was disorganized; 
its leaders were out of harmony, its soldiers lacked 
discipline. General Guglielmo Pepe, at the head 
of ten thousand men, faced the Austrians at 
Rieti on March 7, 182 1. He was defeated, and 
the greater part of his troops dispersed, carrying 
discouragement into all the provinces. Many 
Liberals fled or hid themselves. The Austrian 
troops advanced on Naples without meeting 
further opposition; on March 23, 1821, they 
entered the capital and restored the absolute 
monarchy. In Sicily, too, all opposition was stifled. 



The sovereigns and ministers assembled at 
Laybach remained there for some months, await- 
ing the issue of the Austrian expedition to Naples. 
They were on the point of dissolving the Con- 
gress when news came of another revolution at 
the other extremity of Italy — ^in Piedmont. The 
Piedmontese movement not only aimed (like the 
Neapolitan insurrection) at obtaining a constitu- 
tion, but had from the first a distinctly national 
purpose. For the Piedmontese Carbonari pro- 
posed to remove King Victor Emmanuel I. 
from the influence of the reactionary courtiers 
by whom he was surrounded; to induce him to 
grant a constitution; and then to incite him to 



34 Cavour 

war against Austria. They counted on the sup- 
port of the young Prince, Charles Albert of Savoy- 
Carignano, heir-presumptive to the throne, who 
had several times shown disapproval of the 
government's retrograde policy. The young offi- 
cers round him, though belonging to the aristo- 
cracy, had themselves absorbed the new ideas, 
and they aroused in him an ambition to play an 
important part in Italy's redemption. Weak of 
character, Charles Albert allowed himself to be 
easily impressed by their eloquence and enthusiasm, 
and perhaps to be drawn further than he had 
intended. He even was said to have enrolled 
himself among the Carbonari; certainly he was 
on intimate terms with some of the revolutionist 
leaders, such as the Marquis Asinari di San 
Marzano, colonel of horse; the Count Provana di 
CoUegno, major of artillery, and the Count 
Santorre di Santarosa, major of engineers. 

The Piedmontese conspirators had decided to 
rise at the moment when the Austrian army should 
be engaged in the struggle with the Neapolitans. 
This movement in the rear of the Austrians must, 
they thought, assure the triumph of the Liberal 
and national cause. On March lo, 182 1, before 
news of the Neapolitan defeat at Rieti had reached 
Piedmont, the garrison of Alessandria, instigated 
by officers who were members of the Carbonari, 
rose with a demand for a constitution and for 
war against Austria. Their standard was the 
white, red and green that had been raised by the 



Military Revolutions of 1 820-2 1 35 

Cisalpine Republic in 1 797. It had afterwards been 
adopted by the Kingdom of Italy which that repub- 
lic became, and it fell with the kingdom in 18 14. 
So it was now regarded as a symbol of revolution. 
While a provisional government was being organ- 
ized in Alessandria, the garrison of Turin began to 
show signs of revolt. Two days later, although 
news of the Neapolitan disaster was coming in, it 
followed the example of the garrison of Alessandria, 
and even threatened to bombard the city unless 
the King granted a constitution. 

King Victor Emmanuel I. had promised the 
Holy Alliance that he would not alter the political 
system of Piedmont. On the other hand, his 
humane disposition made him unwilling to shed 
the blood of his subjects in a fratricidal struggle. 
That same evening (March 12th) he abdicated 
in favour of his brother Charles Felix, and as 
his brother was then at Modena he nominated 
Charles Albert to a provisional regency of the 
kingdom. Incited by his friends and carried 
away by the progress of the revolution, the young 
prince, after learning the views of ministers, 
generals, and municipal leaders, proclaimed the 
Spanish constitution. This was on the evening 
of March 13th, and the announcement was ac- 
companied by a manifesto which contained the 
following declaration: 

In this extremely difficult conjuncture, we have 
been obliged to disregard the ordinary limitations of 



36 Cavour 

a Regent's power. Our respect for, and our submis- 
sion to, His Majesty, Charles Felix, to whom the 
throne belongs, would have counselled us to abstain 
from making any change in the fundamental laws of 
the kingdom, or would have induced us to delay until 
we knew the intentions of the new sovereign. But 
the stress of circumstances is manifest, and it behoves 
us to take every precaution that the new king shall 
find his people safe, uninjured, and happy — not 
already torn by factions and by civil war. There- 
fore, after mature deliberation and after taking the 
opinion of our Council, we have decided (in confidence 
that His Majesty the King, moved by the same 
considerations, will approve this decision) that the 
constitution of Spain be promulgated and observed 
as the law of the State, save for such modifications 
as may be decided upon by the National Assembly 
together with His Majesty the King. 

But Charles Felix was a prince of despotic 
tendencies. He disapproved of Charles Albert's 
action and sent from Modena a decree by which 
he declared null all decisions that had been taken 
without his assent. Later, he ordered Charles 
Albert to leave Turin. The Liberals who sur- 
rounded Charles Albert wished to draw him into 
open revolt against King Charles Felix, but he 
regarded that course as infamous disloyalty to 
the eldest branch of his family. Then, too, more 
definite news was coming in about the easy advance 
of the Austrian troops through Naples; so there 
was no longer any hope of preserving the Pied- 



Military Revolutions of 1820-21 37 

montese constitution. Charles Albert saw that 
if he opposed the King he would wreck his own 
future without saving the revolution. He decided 
to withdraw from it. Yet so weak was his char- 
acter that he lacked the courage to announce, 
even to his own ministers, the decision that he had 
taken in this gloomy situation. During the night 
of March 21st he left Turin, almost in secret. 

The imforeseen departure of the regent spread 
discouragement and disorder among the partisans 
of the revolution, many of whom withdrew their 
support. The absolutist party, now assured of 
the King's favour, raised their heads once more; 
and General de la Tour hoisted anew at Novara 
the blue standard of Savoy and invited the troops 
that remained faithful to Charles Felix to gather 
around it. In those difficult moments the control 
of the constitutional government was assumed 
by Count Santorre di Santarosa, whom Charles 
Albert had nominated Minister of War. But 
notwithstanding his fervent proclamations the 
constitutionalists managed to keep together only 
four thousand soldiers, who were easily routed on 
April 8, 1 82 1, under the walls of Novara, by the 
army that La Toiu- had assembled and a body of 
Austrian troops that had crossed the Ticino. 
The constitutionalists dispersed, and the more 
compromised among them went into exile. 

When the Piedmontese revolution also had been 
thus disposed of, the sovereigns of the Holy Alli- 
ance who had remained at Laybach were able to 



38 Cavour 

dissolve the Congress. On May 12, 1821, they 
addressed to their ambassadors at the various 
Courts of Europe an expression of gratification 
upon the completion of the work. They were 
returning home with the more peace of mind since 
Napoleon I. had just died at St. Helena. With 
his death disappeared the last remnant, of their 
anxieties about that great son of the Revolution. 



The fiercest of reactions now raged — not merely 
in Naples and Piedmont, where the movements of 
1820-21 had occurred, but all over Italy. For 
although there had been no outward signs of 
rebellion in the other provinces, conspiracies had 
been organized there. More especially in Lom- 
bardy-Venetia, many had hoped that the Pied- 
montese would cross the Ticino, and the great 
poet Alexander Manzoni kept in readiness for the 
desired moment that hymn of war in which he 
prophesied that the waters of Ticino should no 
longer flow between "foreign banks," nor place 
be found for barriers '"twixt Italy and Italy." ^ 

The Austrian government, ably served by its 
police, had begun to make arrests in October, 
1820, after the Neapolitan movements. In De- 
cember, 1 82 1, it unearthed the connection which 

* . . . Non fia che quest' onda 
Scorra piu fra due rive straniere, 
Non fia loco ove sorgan barriere 
Tra ritalia e I'ltalia mai pih. 



Military Revolutions of 1 820-2 1 39 

existed between the Liberals of Lombardy and the 
Piedmontese revolution, and new trials followed. 
Among the arrested was one of the most emi- 
nent of the citizens of Milan, Count Frederick 
Confalonieri, who was regarded as the leader of 
the conspiracy. Only after two years of inves- 
tigation was their fate decided. Confalonieri, 
Borsieri, Pallavicino and several others were con- 
demned to death, but with "great clemency" 
the Emperor, by decrees of December 19, 1823, 
and January 8, 1824, commuted that penalty to 
one of close imprisonment in the fortress of the 
Spielberg, in Moravia. There Pellico (who after- 
wards wrote those well-known reminiscences of 
his imprisonments called Le mie Prigioni) was 
already languishing, with Maroncelli and other 
illustrious patriots. ' 

The other sovereigns of Italy naturally sought 
to win the favour of Austria, and they set about 
persecuting the Liberals with ruthless zeal. How 
long was the roll of heroes glorified by the halo 
of martyrdom ! How great the influence of their 
sublime devotion to a noble ideal! And what 
sympathy for the Italian cause the fugitives 
awakened abroad! England in particular was a 
safe asylum for them. Among those who took 
refuge on her shores were the Neapolitan poet, 
Gabriele Rossetti, head of a family that became 
famous in EngHsh letters and art, and Anthony 

' Pellico and Maroncelli were released in 1830; Confalonieri, 
Pallavicino and Borsieri in 1836 by the new Emperor. Ferdinand I. 



40 Cavour 

Panizzi, of Modena, who quickly acquired great 
reputation as a scholar, and afterwards became 
Principal Librarian of the British Museum. The 
ruler of the little Duchy of Modena, Francis IV., 
distinguished himself among his fellow-sovereigns 
by singular ferocity. His object was to gain the 
sympathy of the Holy Alliance, whose support 
he desired in his claim (as husband of Victor 
Emmanuel I.'s eldest daughter) to the succession 
to the throne of Savoy. He flattered himself 
that by playing upon the aversion which Charles 
Felix, after the events of 1821, felt for Charles 
Albert, he could bring about the abolition of the 
Salic Law in Piedmont, and exclude Charles 
Albert from the succession. But the Austrian 
government itself understood that France would 
not be pleased to see an archduke of Austria 
on her borders. So it refrained from supporting 
Francis IV. 's ambitious designs, and they came 
to nothing. 

Charles Albert, however, in order to purchase 
a reconciliation with Charles Felix, had to give 
solemn proof of devotion to the Holy Alliance. 
He was obliged to enrol himself in the French 
army that was sent into Spain to overthrow the 
very constitution which he had promulgated in 
Piedmont in 1821; and on his return from the 
expedition, which to him was a severe chastise- 
ment, he had to promise that when he came to 
the throne he would make no change in the politi- 
cal institutions of his country. On the other 



Military Revolutions of 1820-21 41 

hand, he felt that he had become an object of 
hatred to the Liberals, who all accused him of 
betraying them. He knew that the charge was 
unjust, but, having grown suspicious of all men, 
he now opened his mind to none. And so the 
handsome, merry, vivacious youth of a few years 
ago became the pale, solemn, taciturn man, sunk 
always in profound melancholy. 



Ill 



TEN YEARS LATER: APPEARANCE OF MAZZINI AND 
CAVOUR 

Su, figli d'ltalia! su in armi, coraggio! 
II suolo qui h nostro; del nostro retaggio 
II turpe mercato finisce pei re. 
Un popol diviso per sette destini 
In sette sprezzato da sette confini, 
Si fonde in un solo, piu servo non h. 

Su, Italia, su in armi! Venuto h il tuo dil 
Dei re congiurati la tresca fini. 

Dair Alpi alio Stretto fratelli siam tutti! 
Sui limiti schiusi, sui troni distrutti 
Piantiamo i comuni tre nostri color: 
II verde, la speme tanti anni pasciuta, 
II rosso, la gioia d'averla compiuta, 
II bianco, la fede fratema d'amor. 

G. Berchet: Per la rivoluzione del 1831.^ 

' Up, sons of Italj' ! To arms! Bebravel The soil is ours; the shameful 
traffic of our inheritance by Kings is ending. A people separated by seven 
destinies, by seven boundaries broken into seven, fuses itself into one. It is 
a slave no more. Up, Italy; to armsl Thy day is come! End the intrigue 
of conspiring Kings! From the Alps to the Straits we are all brothers. 
Over boundaries demolished, over thrones destroyed, let us plant the tri- 
colour, the flag of us all: the green, which tells of hope long nourished; the 
red, the joy of fulfilment; the aiftj^e, the fraternal confidence of love. — For 
the Revolution of 1831. 



43 



CHAPTER III 

TEN YEARS LATER: APPEARANCE OF MAZZINI AND 
CAVOUR 

The new generation — Rebound of the French Revolution of 
1830 — Cyrus Menotti and the revolution of 1831 — Mazzini's 
youth; his imprisonment — Cavour sub-lieutenant of engin- 
eers; his Liberal ideas. 

THE movements of 1820-21 had been brought 
about by the military element that still 
belonged to the Napoleonic period. This revolu- 
tionary personnel now disappeared in great part, 
for even those who managed to avoid imprison- 
ment and torture had to go into exile. Many of 
them went to aid the cause of the Spanish con- 
stitutionalists or of Greek independence — as for 
example Santorre di Santarosa, who fell heroically 
fighting in Greece in 1825. On the other hand 
the governments, which in the first period of the 
Restoration had been retrograde but not ferocious, 
now became daily more hateful for their cruelty, 
and for this reason only men devoted to abso- 
lutism accepted commissions in the armies. So 
there was an end of military pronouncements. 

But though official conspirators and rebels 
began to fail, a fresh and much more numerous 
45 



46 Cavour 

revolutionary personnel came to the front with 
the new generation that began to appear on the 
stage of history. This was the generation born 
in the Napoleonic period. After passing its 
youth in the midst of a feverish life of constant 
change, it was confronted by the repose, the in- 
ertia, of the Restoration period. The more ardent 
spirits, who had readily absorbed the ideas of the 
revolution, felt that all their liveliest aspirations 
were fundamentally opposed to the existing regime ; 
yet, being still very young, they were profoundly 
impressed, perhaps by the revolutions of 1820-21, 
perhaps by the accounts of the martyrdom which 
so many Italians suffered for liberty and for 
country. They came to feel a burning desire for 
universal renovation — not in politics only, but 
also in literature, philosophy, art. And in the 
enthusiasm of their young minds they entered 
upon life with a determination to take part in the 
struggle. It may be said that this generation came 
on the scene when the Parisian revolution of 1830 
broke out. The young Italians of more ardent 
temperament hoped for great and speedy changes 
in the peninsula. 

But the only revolutionary organization that 
had any solidity was that which gathered around 
a young merchant of Modena, Cyrus Menotti,i 
bom in 1798, who by reason of his generous heart 
and ready intellect enjoyed great influence among 
the Liberals of Emilia. He had allowed himself 
to be led, by his friend Misley, into secret rela- 



Appearance of Mazzini and Cavour 47 

tions with Duke Francis IV., who, after losing all 
hope of succession to the throne of Savoy, had 
shared in these Liberal plots with a view to the 
crown of the new kingdom that should be set up 
in Italy. Cyrus Menotti, though realizing the 
baseness of the Duke's character, trusted in his 
extraordinary thirst for power; but Francis IV. 
betrayed his accomplice when he saw that Austria 
had information of the plots. On the night of 
February 3, 1831, fifty-seven conspirators met in 
the house of Cyrus Menotti at Modena, to prepare 
cartridges and tricoloured standards in expecta- 
tion of bands of insurgents who were to come in 
from the neighbouring districts. Duke Francis 
IV., who knew what was going on, strengthened 
the guards at the city gates and sent a regiment 
of his troops to surround Menotti's house. The 
conspirators offered a sturdy defence for several 
hours, but were captured after nearly all of them 
had been wounded. 

While the revolution seemed to be thus sup- 
pressed in Modena, it was breaking out in the 
neighbouring territory of Bologna, a city of 
the Papal States. The cardinal who governed 
Bologna was then at Rome — for the conclave 
which, on February 2, 1 831, elected as the new 
Pope Fra Mauro Cappellari (Gregory XVI.). 
This news had not reached Bologna on the morn- 
ing of the 4th, when tidings came from Modena 
of the events of the previous night. The city 
rose. The prelate whom the cardinal-legate had 



48 Cavour 

left in charge was panic-stricken. He nominated 
a committee to administer the city and forthwith 
took his departure. The committee assumed the 
title of Provisional Government of the City and 
Province of Bologna, and declared that the bond 
which held the Bolognese in subjection to the 
Pope was for ever broken. This bloodless, peace- 
ful, orderly revolution quickly spread through 
all Romagna, then to the Marches and a part 
of Umbria. Everywhere the representatives of 
Papal power resigned their powers into the hands 
of the more considerable citizens and went away. 
The Papal militia either followed them or frater- 
nized with the people. 

The news of these events at Bologna threw 
Modena and all the lands of the Duchy into a 
state of agitation. On the evening of February 
5th Francis IV., thoroughly frightened, fled to 
the Austrian fortress of Mantua with seven hund- 
red men and his prisoner Cyrus Menotti, who 
might have been a dangerous witness against 
him. His flight facilitated the triumph of the 
revolution. Next day armed bands from the 
country entered Modena and released the political 
prisoners. A provisional government was set 
up. The revolution spread also to the neighbour- 
ing Duchy of Parma, and on February 14th the 
Duchess Marie Louise fled to Piacenza, where an 
Austrian garrison was quartered. At Parma, as 
elsewhere, a provisional government was nomi- 
nated. Meantime at Bologna an assembly of 



I 




MARIE LOUISE, DUCHESS OF PARMA 

From the paintin? by Borghesi 

From a photo by Alinari 



Appearance of Mazzini and Cavour 49 

deputies from the territories that had thrown off 
Papal rule proclaimed a Federation of the United 
Italian Provinces, and adopted as their ensign 
the tricoloured Italian banner. 

The Pope, the Duke of Modena, and the Duchess 
of Parma had of course protested against the 
acts of the provisional governments established 
in their States, and had requested the help of 
Austrian troops. The Italians trusted in the 
principle of non-intervention proclaimed by the 
new monarchy of France, but events soon showed 
that Louis Philippe was not over-zealous in the 
defence of such a principle against the wishes of 
Austria. It was not long before Austrian troops 
restored Marie Louise in Parma and Francis IV. 
in Modena; then, entering the Papal States, they 
defeated, near Rimini on the 25th of March, the 
little army that the rebels had organized, and 
swiftly re-established the government of the Pope. 

Among the restored rulers, the Duchess Marie 
Louise distinguished herself by clemency. She 
allowed the leaders of the rebels to flee, and pub- 
lished a general amnesty. Not so Francis IV. 
He showed extreme cruelty and sent several of his 
subjects to the gallows — among them Cyrus 
Menotti. The Pope ordered certain trials, which 
ended in mild sentences because they were not 
concerned with the leaders of the movement. 
The leaders themselves had set sail from Ancona, 
but the Austrian fleet, commanded by Admiral 
Bandiera, had captured their ship, and the patriots 



50 Cavour 

had been thrown into Venetian prisons. Diplo- 
matic intervention by France and England alone 
saved them from being handed over to the govern- 
ments of Francis IV. and Gregory XVI. After 
several months of imprisonment they were sent 
into exile, and some of them, like Terence Mamiani 
(bom in 1799), helped by their writings to increase 
the sympathy of the more civilized nations for 
Italy's cause. 

Thus, after a brief spell of sunshine that gave 
hope of brighter days, the sky frowned again over 
all the peninsiila. It was amid this gloom that 
Joseph Mazzini set forth upon his apostolate. 



Mazzini was born in that very month of June, 
1805, in which the Doge of his native Genoa pre- 
sented himself before Napoleon I. to beg him, in 
the name of the Senate, "to consent to give the 
Genoese the felicity that comes from being your 
subjects." His father, a distinguished physician, 
had him educated at home — perhaps on account 
of his grief at the annexation of Genoa to the 
dominions of the House of Savoy, after Napoleon's 
fall, and his decided antipathy for the Piedmontese 
government. In fact all Genoa, in its sorrow for 
the old republic, was pervaded by a lively senti- 
ment of opposition to the House of Savoy. Maz- 
zini thus passed his youth amid anti-monarchical 
influences. In 1821 he was deeply impressed by 
seeing, in the streets of Genoa, the fugitive revolu- 




MAZZINI AS A YOUNG MAN 

From a contemporary print 



Appearance of Mazzini and Cavour 51 

tionists of Piedmont who had taken refuge there 
in hope of finding ship. That day, as he himself 
tells us, the thought first presented itself, although 
confusedly, to his mind, that it was possible, and 
therefore his bounden duty, to struggle for his 
country's freedom. He roused his classmates 
at the University to ever greater enthusiasm for 
these ideals; and, although of too retiring a dis- 
position to make friendships readily, he gathered 
around himself, by the superiority of his intellect 
and the nobility of his character, a little band of 
devoted comrades. Giovanni Ruffini, who from 
that time was boimd to him by the ties of warm 
affection, thus describes him to us:^ 

He had a finely-shaped head, the forehead spacious 
and prominent, and eyes black as jet, at times darting 
lightning. His complexion was a pale olive, and his 
features, remarkably striking altogether, were set, 
so to speak, in a profusion of flowing black hair, 
which he wore rather long. The expression of his 
countenance, grave and almost severe, was softened 
by a smile of great sweetness, mingled with a certain 
shrewdness, betraying a rich comic vein. He spoke 
well and fluently, and when he warmed upon a sub- 
ject, there was a fascinating power in his eyes, his 
gestures, his voice, his whole bearing, that was quite 
irresistible. His life was one of retirement and study ; 
the amusements common with young men of his age 
had no attraction for him. His library, his cigar, his 

' Under the name of Fantasio in the novel Lorenzo Benoni 
which Rixffini wrote originally in English. 



52 Cavour 

coffee; some occasional walks, rarely in the day time, 
and always in solitary places, more frequently in the 
evening and by moonlight, — such were his only plea- 
sures. ... He was well versed in history, and in the 
literature, not only of his own but of foreign countries. 
Shakespeare, Byron, Goethe, Schiller, were as familiar 
to him as Dante and Alfieri. Spare and thin in body, 
he had an indefatigably active mind; he wrote much 
and well both in prose and verse, and there was hardly 
a subject he had not attempted, — historical essays, 
literary criticisms, tragedies, etc., etc. A passionate 
lover of liberty under every shape, there breathed in 
his fiery soul an indomitable spirit of revolt against 
tyranny and oppression of every sort. 

To love for his country he made his first great 
sacrifice when he renounced the career of letters 
in order to devote himself to political activity. 
Fantasies of art, visions of drama and romance, 
floated seductively before his mind. But he 
thought it better to consecrate his life to the 
problem : ' ' Shall we possess our native land ? " It 
is easy to understand that such a youth, dressed 
always in black as though in mourning for his 
country, must soon fall under the suspicion of the 
police. When the Parisian revolution of 1830 ex- 
cited the minds of the Liberals, and on the other 
hand stirred the police to renewed zeal, Mazzini, 
who had enrolled himself among the Carbonari 
and had been denoimced by an informer, was 
speedily arrested (November 11, 1830). 

In prison he meditated long upon the political 



Appearance of Mazzini and Cavour 53 

situation. He was convinced that Carbonarism 
was incapable of directing the Italian movement, 
for it had now lost all vitality. Instead of spend- 
ing time and effort in galvanizing it into life, it 
was better to create a new and different organiza- 
tion. Thus he conceived the design of Young 
Italy — pondering over the principles on which 
this new secret society should be based, deciding 
who should be chosen to inaugurate it, and what 
was the bond that could unite them in a work 
that was common to the revolutionist elements 
of all Europe. 



At Genoa, in those very days of 1830 in which 
Joseph Mazzini was arrested, a young officer of 
engineers, son of a Piedmontese nobleman of 
reactionary views, found himself subject to the 
surveillance of the police. This was Camillo 
Benso di Cavour, second son of the Marquis 
Michael Benso di Cavour. He was now twenty 
years old.^ Like all the younger sons of noble 
families, he had been intended for a military 
career, and when only ten years of age he had been 
sent to the Academy of Turin. Soon afterwards 
the revolution of 1821 had broken out. It had 
made a strong impression upon the young Cavour, 
with his bold temperament and precocious mind — 

' He was bom at Turin on August lo, 1810, and had for 
godfather Prince Camillo Borghese, then governor of Piedmont 
for Napoleon I. 



54 Cavour 

the more so because he was a distant relative of 
the foremost hero of that movement, Santorre di 
Santarosa. In secret he had ever since cultivated 
vague Liberal aspirations, and they were fostered 
afterwards by his close intimacy with Severino 
Cassio, a school-companion of republican tenden- 
cies. He had spent several holidays with the 
relatives of his mother (Adelaide Sellon d'Allaman) 
at Geneva. There, under the influence of a 
government and of a religion different from those 
of Piedmont, his mental horizon was widened and 
his Liberal convictions were strengthened to such 
a degree that in a letter to his elder brother, dated 
November 30, 1828, he wrote: 

Certainly all personal considerations — the probable 
political and material advantages — invited me to 
fight under the banner of absolutism. But an innate 
sentiment of self-respect, which I have always pre- 
served with care, has repelled me from a course in 
which the first essential was that I should deny my 
own convictions and no longer see or believe except 
with the eyes and understanding of other men. 

For this reason he felt somewhat uncomfortable 
in his family — especially as his father not only 
held reactionary views, but was a man whose 
temperament disposed him to the use of authority. 
As sub-lieutenant of engineers Camillo Cavour 
had been assigned to fortification works at Venti- 
miglia, at Exilles (near Susa), and at Lesseillon 
(near Modane), but he had also spent a good deal 



f^» 



,?* vMw 




CAMILLO CAVOUR AS A YOUNG MAN 



Appearance of Mazzini and Cavour 55 

of time at Turin, at the headquarters of the corps 
of engineers. Outside his official duties he had 
devoted himself to the study of political science, 
for which he had presently conceived a passion, 
and he was thoroughly persuaded that a change 
was imminent in Italy. With such ideas in 
mind he had felt that the atmosphere of his family 
and of his native Turin, too, with its tame obse- 
quiousness to King Charles Felix, was becoming 
imbearable. Consequently in March, 1830, he 
received with delight the news that he had been 
appointed to the engineer staff at Genoa — and the 
more so because his bosom friend Cassio was 
simultaneously gazetted for service in the same 
city. He seemed to have gained freedom from 
all the vexations that he had hitherto suffered, 
and to be launched on life at last. 

It may easily be imagined how the young officer 
was affected by his surroundings at Genoa. The 
opposition to the government which he encoun- 
tered everywhere convinced him more and more 
that the old political institutions were doomed, 
and when, in July of that year, the Parisian revolu- 
tion drove from the throne of France the eldest 
branch of the Bourbons, he was unable to contain 
his enthusiasm. He hoped that those events 
would quickly find a parallel in Italy, and yielding 
himself up to the most ambitious of dreams he be- 
lieved (in the words of one of his letters at that time) 
that some fine morning he would awake to find 
himself First Minister of the Kingdom of Italy. 



56 Cavour 

In part his mental exaltation at this period may 
be explained by his love for that lady whom 
Domenico Berti, in publishing Cavour's Diario 
inedito, preferred to leave unnamed, but whom 
many know to have been the Marchesa Anna 
Schiafiino-Giustiniani, wife of the President of the 
Board of Health at Genoa. This was Cavour's 
one real and deep love affair. On her part, that 
high-minded and cultivated lady was fascinated 
by his personality. She saw in Cavour a man 
predestined to a glorious future, and she felt for 
him a passion so violent that it caused her great 
sufferings and consumed her vital energies in less 
than ten years.' The political sympathies of the 
Marquise Giustiniani were republican. They 
softened somewhat under the influence of Cavour, 
but in turn they served to strengthen his Liberal 
sentiments. 

The devotion of this lady and the news from 
France excited the young officer to such a pitch 
that he committed certain imprudences of speech 
and awakened the suspicions of the police. He 
himself realized it, and in a letter of October 23, 
1830, he speaks jokingly of it to his uncle, Di Sellon : 

The elastic force of gases increases in direct ratio 
to the pressure which they support. But our govern- 
ment, which probably knows nothing of physics, 
has taken especially severe precautions for Genoa. 
The city is full of spies. There are actually lists of 

' She died in 1841, at the early age of thirty-four. 



Appearance of Mazzini and Cavour 57 

suspects, and (I know not by what fatal coincidence) 
nearly all the members of the honourable Corps of 
Engineers have been entered on these lists. Hence 
it has come about that for a month all our words, 
and, I believe, all our thoughts, have been the subject 
of reports. You well understand that it would have 
been imprudent on my part to run the risk of furnishing 
incriminating evidence to those who watched me. So 
I have refrained from writing to you — in spite of my 
desire to do so. 

Thus Mazzini and Cavour, bred in surroundings 
so different, but endowed alike with high abilities 
and generous natures, began in 1830 to be regarded 
by the police in the light of dangerous subjects. 
Yet their dreams were of a new Italy, honoured 
and powerful, a fatherland that should lead its 
sons on a glorious march towards greatness and 
prosperity. 

It was a misfortune that these two young men, 
at Genoa that year, should have had no oppor- 
tunity of forming an acquaintance. For then, 
with the ready expansiveness of youthful minds, 
they would have come to a just appreciation of 
each other. Those whom all must regard as the 
two greatest builders of that wonderful edifice, 
the Italian Risorgimento, never met then or at any 
later time. How many mutual prepossessions 
would have been dissipated, how many false 
judgments avoided, by personal contact and the 
frank exchange of ideas ! 

True, their temperaments were dissimilar, and 



58 Cavour 

they would in any case have gone different ways. 
In the one, idealism and fancy predominated; in 
the other, regard for facts and arguments. Cavour 
admitted that he had no imagination, and was 
incapable of inventing the simplest story to please 
a child. And the natural tendency of his mind 
had been strengthened by the mathematical 
studies that he pursued so sedulously at the 
Military Academy. It was an effect of this 
mental quality that, although firmly determined 
to oppose the retrograde policy of the government, 
he had no welcome for proposals of conspiracy. 
For, after calculating the strength of the forces 
on the other side, he judged it impossible that 
conspiracies should succeed. Later in life he 
became a fierce opponent of Mazzini through 
failure to recognize the great merits of the prophet 
of the new Italy. Yet it was precisely Mazzini's 
idealism which raised up those souls, full of calm, 
heroic faith, that were afterwards the most 
effective fellow-workers with Cavour in the 
national revival; it was that idealism which 
created the conditions necessary for the fulfilment 
of Cavour' s positive policy. 

But for the present the one, in the silence of his 
prison at Savona, meditated upon the organiza- 
tion of Young Italy; the other, indignant that he 
was under surveillance, and longing for a life of 
independence, began to think of leaving the 
career of arms. 




^ 2 









^1 %'^i-«si^^' 




^ 






^' 



^^ 



1 



IV 



THE APOSTOLATE OF MAZZINI, AND CAVOUR S 
PREPARATION FOR POLITICS 

Qual da gli aridi scogli erma su '1 mare 
Geneva sta, marmoreo gigante, 
Tal, surto in bassi di, su '1 fluttuante 
Secolo, ei grande, austero, immoto appare. 

Da quegli scogli, onde Colombo infante 
Nuovi pe '1 mar vedea monti spuntare, 
Egli vide nel ciel crepuscolare 
Co '1 cuor di Gracco ed il pensier di Dante. 

La terza Italia; e con le luci fise 
A lei trasse per mezzo un cimitero, 
E un popol morto dietro a lui si mise. 

Esule antico, al ciel mite e severo 
Leva ora il volto che giammai non rise, 
— Tu sol — pensando — o ideal, sei vero. 

Giosu^; Carducci (1836-1907): Giuseppe Mazzini.^ 

'As from the barren rocks — standing alone above the sea — Genoa rises 
like a marble giant, so he, raised up in lowly days, above the fluctuating age, 
seems great, austere, immovable. From those rocks whence the young 
Columbus descried new mountain peaks beyond the ocean, he whose was 
the heart of Gracchus, the mind of Dante, saw in the twilight sky the third 
Italy; with his gaze fixed on her he passed as through a cemetery, and as he 
passed a dead race rose and followed him. Venerable exile, to a heaven 
both merciful and stern raise now that face which never smiled, and say in 
your heart that the ideal alone is true. 



59 



CHAPTER IV 

THE APOSTOLATE OF MAZZINI, AND CAVOUR'S 
PREPARATION FOR POLITICS 

Mazzini in exile; unionist propaganda — Young Italy and the 
expedition into Savoy, 1834 — Cavour renounces the military- 
career — His political convictions — His travels — Cavour a 
man of affairs. 

MAZZINI and Cavour differ from most of the 
great figures of history in the sense that 
their lives disclose one dominant motive, which is 
always fixed. And it was in the same year, 1831, 
that each took the fateful resolution which decided 
his future. 

In February of that year Mazzini, for lack of 
evidence against him, was set at liberty. But 
as the government felt convinced that he was a 
dangerous person, they offered him the alterna- 
tives of relegation to a small town in Piedmont or 
exile from the kingdom. Mazzini saw that in a 
small Piedmontese town, under the constant sur- 
veillance of the police, he would be imable to carry 
out the design that he had conceived. He chose ex- 
ile and went to Marseilles, where he forthwith began 
that political apostolate which he pursued, with 
indomitable perseverance, for the rest of his life. 
61 



62 Cavour 

Just at that time (April 27, 1831) Charles 
Felix died and Charies Albert succeeded to the 
throne. Some of the Liberals, who had not yet. 
lost confidence in the young prince, greeted his 
accession with sanguine expectation. Mazzini 
therefore thought it well, before inaugurating his 
new association, to publish a letter to Charles 
Albert, inviting him to assume the leadership of 
the national movement. This letter, signed "An 
Italian" and written with patriotic fervour, was 
widely circulated among the Italian nationalists. 
In it Mazzini put clearly before Charles Albert 
the alternatives of continuing the sorry policy 
of his predecessors on the throne, or of placing 
himself at the head of the nation and freeing 
Italy from the foreigner. He sought to reawaken 
in the King's mind the enthusiasm of 1821: 

Sire, in those days you fostered this very idea. 
It presented itself to you radiant with high hopes 
and glory, and your blood warmed in your veins. 
By night you dreamed of it. And for it you made 
yourself a conspirator. . . . The times were against 
you then; but why should ten years and a precarious 
crown have destroyed the ambition of your youth, 
the dream of your sleeping hours? . . . Sire, the 
enterprise may be hazardous for men who reckon 
numerical forces only, for men who know no other 
means of reform than embassies, negotiations. The 
way of triumph is certain if you can realize your whole 
position, convince yourself unshakably that you are 
consecrated to a lofty mission, and enter upon it 



Mazzini's Political Apostolate 63 

with bold and resolute determination. Judgment, 
Sire, is a power that balances all others. Great 
things are not achieved by protocols, but by reading 
aright the signs of the times. The secret of power is 
in the will. Choose a course that accords with the 
nation's thought. Keep to it unfalteringly. Be 
firm and seize your opportunity. Victory is within 
your grasp. 

Mazzini ended this, the first of his political 
writings, with the warning: "If you do not act, 
others will — without you and against you." 

Charles Albert seems to have welcomed the 
first of the alternatives that Mazzini put to him. 
So far from changing the policy of the government, 
he left in office his predecessor's ministers, who, 
in face of the agitation that was then perceptible 
throughout Europe, thought it expedient to 
employ double severity against the Liberals. 
Mazzini therefore founded his association. Young 
Italy, and asserted that the unity of Italy could 
never be restored, save by democratic govern- 
ment and the devotion of her people. Hence his 
propaganda took on a republican character. 
Admitting the principle of national sovereignty, 
he was bound to declare that the free nation 
would be able to pass final judgment on the funda- 
mental laws of its constitution. 

But the essential characteristic of Mazzini's 
apostolate consists in his unionist sentiment. In 
his very first directions to the members of Young 
Italy, in 1831, he armounced: 



64 Cavour 

Young Italy is unionist, for without unity there is 
no strength, and Italy, surrounded by powerful and 
jealous unitary nations, needs above everything else 
to be strong. . , . The cumulative effect of European 
changes is to lead European peoples inevitably to 
form themselves into vast unitary masses. And, as 
he sees who knows how to study it, the whole internal 
impulse of Italian civilization has tended through the 
ages to the realization of unity. 

He proposed therefore to familiarize the Italian 
people with the ideal of Italy "free, united, in- 
dependent and republican," and in 1832 he began 
to publish a periodical, named, like the associa- 
tion, Young Italy. It was, of course, prohibited 
and persecuted by the police of the various States 
of the peninsula, but it made its way everywhere, 
for, in order to read and circulate it, many people 
risked imprisonment and even death. Mazzini, 
in fact, with his ardent faith, his high moral 
idealisms, and his stimulating style, turned love 
of country into a religion. 

We are not conspirators merely, but believers. 
We aspire to be not only revolutionists, but, so far 
as in us lies, regenerators. Before everything else 
our problem is one of national education. Arms and 
insurrection are only means, without which, thanks to 
our conditions, it is impossible to attain our end. We 
invoke the bayonet only because it carries an idea 
on its point. Little would it concern us to destroy, 
unless we had hope of founding something better; little 
to note down duties and rights on a sheet of paper, 



Mazzini's Political Apostolate 65 

unless we confidently purposed to imprint them on the 
lives of men. This our fathers neglected; this we 
must keep ever in mind. It is not enough to incite 
the different states of Italy to rise; the question is 
one of creating the nation. We fervently believe that 
Italy has not exhausted her own vitality in the world. 
She is still summoned to bring new elements into 
the progressive development of Humanity — to live a 
third life, which it must be our aim to inaugurate. 

In fine, he proposed not only the political revival 
of Italy, but also her moral and social redemption. 
Through the personal associations which he had 
in Liguria and Piedmont he was soon able to 
organize committees there. At Genoa the family 
most attached to him was that of the Ruffini — 
especially the young physician Jacopo, brother 
of the Giovanni already mentioned. Of this de- 
voted follower Mazzini wrote the tenderest of 
eulogies: 

He was the gentlest youth, the most sensitive and 
constant in his affections, that I ever met. He divided 
his affection between his fatherland, whose high 
mission he understood ; his mother, a model of every 
virtue; his brothers, and myself. He had a capacious 
and ready intellect and was capable of the grandest 
ideas — for the grandest ideas come from the heart. 
Those who knew Jacopo Ruffini hold his memory 
in constant veneration as that of a saint. 

Arrested by the police, Jacopo Ruffini feared 
that they might extort some revelation from him 



66 Cavour 

by torture, and he decided to kill himself. He 
wrenched from the prison gate a rusty piece of 
ironwork, sharpened its point on the walls, and 
opened his veins (June 19, 1833). He was twenty- 
eight years old. His brother Giovanni, having 
with difficulty eluded the police, went first to 
Marseilles, then into Switzerland, and finally to 
England, where he won fame by his novels // 
dottor Antonio and Lorenzo Benoni. Lorenzo 
Boggiano, proprietor of the house in which the 
conspirators assembled, committed suicide to 
avoid arrest. Several of the conspirators were 
sent to their death — at Genoa, or Alessandria, or 
Chambery. Vincenzo Gioberti, a yotmg priest 
who was becoming known for his philosophical 
writings, was arrested at Turin, but precise evi- 
dence against him was lacking and after three 
months of imprisonment he was exiled. 

The savage persecution of his followers by the 
Piedmontese government spurred Mazzini on to 
the organization of a movement against Charles 
Albert. On the border between Switzerland and 
Savoy he got a few hundred fugitives together 
and put them under the command of Colonel 
Ramorino, a Piedmontese who had acquired some 
renown in the recent Polish insurrection. Early 
in 1834 these insurgents marched into Savoy. 
But they met with such a cool reception at the 
hands of the people, who remained indifferent 
even to Joseph Mazzini's ardent proclamations, 
that they made their way back again after a brush 



Mazzini's Political Apostolate 67 

with the royal troops. Concerted movements 
were to have broken out at the same time in the 
various cities of the Kingdom, but in view of the 
failure of the Savoy expedition they were counter- 
manded. The poHce, however, possessed infor- 
mation about them and proceeded to make arrests. 
A young seaman of Nice, Joseph Garibaldi, was 
implicated in this conspiracy. He had tried to 
gain adherents for Mazzini's ideas among the 
sailors of the royal navy. Fortimately for Italy 
he managed to escape from Genoa — in the guise 
of a peasant. He took refuge in Marseilles, and 
there for the first time saw his name printed in a 
newspaper ; for he read that sentence of death had 
been pronounced against him. 

Of course Mazzini, too, had been condemned 
to death — in absence. Persecuted even by the 
French and Swiss governments, he took shelter 
on the free soil of England. In the early years of 
his stay there he had to struggle with the most 
painful extremes of poverty. Afterwards his 
literary articles were accepted by the reviews. 
Through this channel he did good work in making 
the English public better acquainted with Italian 
literature, and helped to arouse a warm feeling 
of sympathy for his native land. Meantime he 
pursued, undaunted, the work of his political 
apostolate, seeking to excite in Italy an ever 
greater degree of hatred against domestic tyrants 
and foreign usurpation. 



68 Cavour 

While Mazzini was becoming the centre of all 
the Italian conspiracies, Cavour was forming 
those political convictions which led him to adopt 
a position midway between the revolutionists 
and the reactionaries. He adopted, as he said 
himself, " cette politique qui consiste a accorder aux 
exigences des temps tout ce que la raison justifie, 
et qm leur refuse ce que n'est fonde que sur des 
clameurs des parties ou la violence des passions 
destructives." 

Early in 1831 he had been sent — perhaps as 
a punishment for his Liberal views — to the fort of 
Bard, in the valley of Aosta. After a few months 
among the mountains, becoming more and more 
disgusted with the soldier's life, which little suited 
his too Hvely temperament, and being ill-content 
to see that even the new sovereign, Charles Albert, 
was continuing the retrograde policy of his pre- 
decessors, Camillo Cavour sought and obtained 
his father's leave to resign his commission. 

In November, 1831, therefore, Cavoiir aban- 
doned the military career. Desiring some employ- 
ment for his energies, he took up the administration 
of certain estates that were entrusted to him 
by his father, and in a short time he acquired 
a soimd knowledge of agriculture. His passion, 
however, was for politics — but for politics as the 
science of government, not (as they were to 
Mazzini) the subject of an apostolate. His 
dream, as we know already, was to become First 
Minister of the Kingdom of Italy. For the 



Cavour's Preparation for Politics 69 

present th^re was no probability that it would be 
realized. But it was possible to prepare himself; 
and Cavour's life, from twenty to forty years of 
age, was nothing but a preparation for that office. 
During his frequent travels in Switzerland, France, 
and England he paid close attention to those 
Liberal institutions that he desired to see intro- 
duced into Piedmont — ^institutions which, as he 
thought, must contribute to an economic as w^U 
as a political revival in his country, in fact to a 
wholesome reawakening of all its energies. 

From 1832 he had the intention of making a 
tour in Lombardy-Venetia, but the Austrian am- 
bassador at Turin gave an unfavourable account 
of him to the authorities at Milan : 

This young man belongs to one of the most respected 
families in Piedmont, and his father, the Marquis di 
Cavour, who is held in general esteem, is the first to 
deplore the conduct and the principles of his younger 
son. ... I regard him as a very dangerous man. 
All attempts to correct him have been fruitless. He 
needs, therefore, to be watched continually. 

On this information the director-general of 
police at Milan sent the following instructions to 
the commissioner of Buffalora, on the border be- 
tween the Kingdom of Sardinia and Lombardy- 
Venetia: 

Be on the look-out; for the young Piedmontese 
cavalier, Camillo di Cavour, formerly officer of 



70 Cavour 

engineers, and, in spite of his youth, already old in 
the corruption of his political principles, is about to 
start on a journey. I make haste, Mr. Commissioner, 
to give you this information, with the suggestion 
that you should refuse to admit him, when he presents 
himself on this frontier, unless he has passports in 
perfect form, and in that case only after a minute 
inspection of his baggage and his person, for I have 
warning that he may be the bearer of dangerous 
letters. 

A little later all the commissioners of police 
were warned by circular that Camillo Cavour was 
excluded from the provinces subject to Austria. 
But in 1836 — perhaps because the new Austrian 
ambassador at Turin was more favourably dis- 
posed towards him; perhaps because Cavour, by 
reason of a stay of many months in France and 
England, was no longer talked about at Turin — 
he managed to obtain a passage through Lombardy- 
Venetia to Villach, "on lawful business" and "for 
once only." On his return journey he stayed for 
some days at Trieste and at Venice. He wished 
to go into the Papal States, but was prevented 
by a sanitary cordon which had been ordered on 
account of cholera. 

Notwithstanding his studies and travels, life 
began to seem empty and monotonous to him. 
The means of acquiring the glory that he desired 
did not present themselves, and the bold confidence 
of but a little while before began to grow faint. 
Yet when, in the course of his first visit to Paris, 



Cavour's Preparation for Politics 71 

he was urged to settle down in that great centre, 
where he woiild quickly have acquired the celebrity 
that he vainly sought in Piedmont, Cavour 
answered nobly (May, 1835): 

No, no; it is not by fleeing from one's native land 
because she is unhappy that one can reach a glorious 
end. . . . Happy or unhappy, my country shall have all 
my life. I will never be unfaithful to her, even though 
I were sure of finding a brilliant future elsewhere. 

But he had to wait long for the opportunity of 
employing his great qualities in his own land. He 
knew that he possessed as much capacity and 
knowledge as the men who held the chief posts — 
and more. But his convictions restrained him 
from allying himself with the government so long 
as it followed its reactionary course, for that would 
have involved the sacrifice of cherished ideas that 
he meant to carry with him through life. On the 
other hand his proud bearing, and his contempt for 
every form of servility, had ill disposed Charles Al- 
bert towards him even from his youth. Charles Al- 
bert always showed a marked antipathy for him, and 
the young nobleman fully reciprocated it. For the 
cloudiness of Charles Albert's thought, the vacil- 
lations of his will, were unbearable to a man so clear 
in thought and so ready in decision as Cavour. 

In such circumstances Cavour saw no hope of 
showing his great political talents. Sometimes 
he felt suffocated by the heavy atmosphere of 
ignorance and prejudice that characterized the life 



72 Cavour 

of Piedmont. For there (so he wrote in a letter 
of August 24, 1843) "intelHgence and knowledge 
are reputed infernal things by him who has the 
goodness to,- rule us." From time to time he went 
to breathe< the free air of Switzerland, France, 
England. From these travels he returned with a 
mass of political information, and a knowledge of 
social science ; with a boundless admiration for the 
English conception of liberty; and with a still more 
ardent passion for politics. His Genevan friends 
induced him to write articles for the Swiss and 
French reviews, on political and social questions, 
and especially on subjects concerning England, 
such as : Thoughts on the Condition of Ireland and 
its Future; The English Corn Laws; Pauperism 
and the Official Report of the Commission on the 
Administration of the Poor Law in England. 

Inaction was unbearable to him. From 1835 
he was entrusted by his father with the 'adminis- 
tration of a great estate at Leri (in the province of 
Vercelli) and threw himself into the occupations of 
a country gentleman, thus acquiring a valuable 
fimd of experience. Then he embarked on a career 
of speculation. He organized industrial societies, 
shared in railway enterprises, became a real man 
of affairs. And since the inconveniences of politi- 
cal division and of all the old institutions were felt 
more strongly now that Italy was becoming an 
industrial coiintry, the commercial schemes with 
which Cavour busied himself were a means of 
preparing for the new political era. 



PROGRESS OF LIBERAL IDEAS 

O patria adorata, 

Che vivi agli affanni, 

Piu sacra cogli anni 

Diventi per me: 
M'^ sacro il tuo cielo, 

M'e sacro il tuo suolo, 

M'e sacro quel duolo 

Ch'io sento per te. 
Gabriele Rossetti (1783-1854): Inni.^ 

' O adored country, born to suffer griefs, for me thou dost become more 
hallowed with the passing years. To me thy sky is sacred, sacred is thy 
soil to me, sacred is that sorrow which I feel for thee. — Hymns. 



73 



CHAPTER V 

PROGRESS OF LIBERAL IDEAS 

Application of machinery to industry — The first railways in 
Italy — Development of the middle class — Patriotic literature 
and Scientific Congresses — Gioberti's // Primato d'ltalia — 
The brothers Bandiera — The New Guelf party — Condition 
of the Papal States — Reawakening of patriotic aspirations 
in Charles Albert. 

THE long peace had favoured the development 
of commerce and industry, and the use of 
machinery which now began to spread in Italy 
accelerated this economic progress. A reawaken- 
ing from the torpor that had been the character- 
istic of the Restoration period became daily more 
noticeable. Industrial and artistic exhibitions, 
on a small scale, were opened ; savings-banks were 
founded; agricultural societies were formed to 
popularize through the peninsula the improvements 
that had been already introduced into the agri- 
culture of other countries; and the first railway 
projects were discussed. The earliest railway to 
be opened in Italy was the short trunk line, eight 
kilometres in length, between Naples and Portici. 
It was constructed in 1839 — rather for the conve- 
nience of the Court, which had a castle with exten- 
75 



76 Cavour 

sive pleasure grounds at Portici, than in the Interests 
of the public. Next year the line, thirteen kilo- 
metres long, from Milan to Monza was opened. 
Its construction had also been determined by 
similar considerations. But meantime work was 
begun on the great railway from Milan to Venice, 
and in 1842 the first section, between Mestre and 
Padua, was opened for traffic. The building of 
the splendid bridge across the lagoon, in order 
to connect Venice with the mainland, had been 
already begun, and in January , 1846, it was declared 
open, simultaneously with the railway from Padua 
to Venice, with imposing ceremony. The first 
trunk line from Milan to Treviglio was opened at the 
same time. In Tuscany, too, the short stretch of 
line from Leghorn to Pisa was laid down in 1844, 
and in Piedmont men were considering the project of 
a whole system of lines which should radiate out from 
Alessandria to Turin, Genoa, and Lake Maggiore. 
The most cultured people of the peninsula showed 
an active interest in this remarkable progress, and 
many books were published on the subject. 

Cavour himself in 1846 published in the Nouvelle 
Revue an article comparing the important results 
that would follow from railway enterprise with 
those of the geographical discoveries of the fifteenth 
century. And he added, so far as concerned Italy, 
it would reawaken the spirit of nationality : 

A system of communications that will stimulate a 
constant movement of people in every direction, and 



Progress of Liberal Ideas 77 

will bring populations that have hitherto remained 
strangers to each other into immediate contact, must 
contribute largely to the destruction of the petty- 
municipal passions, born of ignorance and prejudice, 
which have been already undermined by the efforts 
of all enlightened Italians, , . . For this result we 
pray with fervour. It will be the victory of Italian 
independence — a supreme boon that Italy could never 
gain except by the united efforts of all her children; 
a boon without which she cannot hope for any real 
and lasting improvement in her political condi- 
tion, nor move with steady step along the path of 
progress. 

Amid this industrial and commercial growth 
the middle class became more and more numerous 
and wealthy. It awakened by degrees to a sense 
of its own strength, and was more courageous in 
showing a desire for reform. Little by little the 
whole feeling of Italy was being altered to such an 
extent that many new institutions readily found 
ardent advocates. Efforts were made to promote 
popular education; many infant schools were 
established, thanks especially to Ferrante Aporti; 
literary and illustrated periodicals were founded, 
for as yet it was impossible to publish political 
organs; and in everything the love of Italy was 
asserted in terms of growing emphasis. The 
Italian literature of the day was imbued with the 
idea of the country's regeneration. In spite of 
the censorship of the press, its writers found means 
to indicate their patriotic sentiments, and the 



78 Cavour 

public knew how to catch up at once the sKghtest 
allusion to the theme of nationality. 

The Scientific Congresses that were begun at 
Pisa in 1839, and were afterwards held every year 
in one or other of the Italian States (except the 
States of the Church), helped to spread these 
aspirations far and wide. For they facilitated 
intercourse between eminent men scattered over 
the various provinces of Italy. So there was being 
formed in all cultured and intelligent society a 
strong conviction that radical changes were 
necessary in Italy's political institutions. 



Precisely because this public opinion was now 
felt to be powerful, some thinkers held that the 
system of secret societies and plots ought to be 
abandoned in favour of a more practicable method. 
The exponent of the new national programme was 
the Piedmontese priest Vincenzo Gioberti (born 
in 1 801), who on being exiled from Piedmont in 
1833 had taken refuge in Brussels, and there in 
1843 published his famous book II Primato morale 
e civile degli Italiani. After extolling the past 
glories and lamenting the present miseries of the 
Italians, he concluded that "with a little good- will 
and energy we can, without shocks, without revo- 
lutions, without injustices, become again one of 
the foremost peoples of the universe." Seeking to 
bring the theories of the revolution into harmony 
with actual circumstances, he renounced the dream 



Progress of Liberal Ideas 79 

of unity and was content to advocate a confedera- 
tion of the existing States under the presidency of 
the Pope. He predicted that the Pope and the 
princes, if won over to ideas of justice and com-' 
passion, wotdd ally themselves in a friendly 
understanding with their people. Under the in- 
fluence of the Catholic Democratic movement, 
then becoming prominent in Eiirope, he declared 
that every plan of Italian revival was useless, 
unless it had the Papacy for its comer-stone. 

The history of Italy is that of the Papacy; the 
history of the Papacy is identified with that of the 
whole civilized world. Rome, the religious capital, 
ought to be likewise the civil and moral metropolis 
of the human race. And as Rome is the privileged 
seat of Christian wisdom, Piedmont is in our day the 
chief centre of Italian military power. On Rome, 
therefore, and on Turin the fate of Italy depends. 

Its singular temperateness of idea, and its eulo- 
gistic references to the Papacy and the princes, 
saved this book from being prohibited. It cir- 
culated largely through all the peninsida, and 
evoked the enthusiasm of many Liberals. 

At that moment was heard a fresh sound of 
revolt — the glorious but sorrowful episode of the 
brothers Bandiera. These two young Venetians, 
officers in the Austrian navy, were intensely 
patriotic, and were grieved to see their father, 
an Austrian rear-admiral, make himself a zealous 
instrument of the foreign government. They de- 



8o Cavour 

cided to devote their lives to the redempc. 
Italy. In the judgment of Mazzini, with wh«^ni 
they entered into correspondence, they were- 
sincerest souls, the most finely tempered axxu 
hallowed by affection and self-sacrifice, that ke 
had met since the death of Jacopo Ruffini. In 
agreement with another Venetian officer, Do- 
menico Moro, they planned to seize the frigate 
Bellona, on which they were serving, but before 
they could carry out the plot they had reason to 
fear that it was discovered, and they fled to Corfu. 
The Austrian Government tried, through their 
mother, to induce them to return to their native 
land under a promise of pardon, but they did 
violence to their strong family affection and with- 
stood their mother's entreaties. Soon afterwards 
they set out from Corfu, with seventeen com- 
panions, to support the insurrection that had just 
broken out in Calabria; but the rising was sup- 
pressed before they arrived, and they fell into the 
hands of the Bourbon soldiery. They were shot 
on July 25, 1844. Heroes that they were, they 
met their fate serenely. Their last cry, addressed 
to the few silent but deeply moved spectators of 
that terrible scene, was Viva V Italia I 



Shall that cry, young men, be a bitter irony [asked 
Joseph Mazzini at the time] or will you receive it, 
hallowed as it is by the supreme self-sacrifice of the 
best among us, that you may embody it in your lives? 
. . . The Faith for which such men seek death, as 



A 



Progress of Liberal Ideas 8i 

yOung lover seeks the embrace of his betrothed, is 
"ot the frenzy of reprehensible agitators, or the dream 
:he deluded few ; it is a religion in the germ ; it is 
tv decree of Providence. At the flame of patriotic 
^ervour that rises from these tombs the Angel of Italy 
will kindle, sooner or later, the torch that shall spread 
illumination a third time from Rome — not indeed, as 
false prophets suggest to you, from the Rome of the 
Pope (once great, but now, however they may prate 
of it, extinguished for ever), but from the Rome of the 
people, the home of Progress. 

The closing words of this passage bring out 
clearly the distinction between Gioberti's policy 
and Mazzini's. Both these great thinkers were 
animated by fervent patriotism; both had strong 
faith in Italy's high destiny and foretold it with 
confidence when they asserted that the regenera- 
tion of humanity must begin at Rome. But 
Gioberti, seeking to link the future to the present, 
was content to demand reforms; while Mazzini 
wished to destroy all the States in the peninsula 
to make room for a single one — the Italian Re- 
public. Around Mazzini, therefore, gathered the 
warmest and most exalted temperaments in the 
peninsula; the more moderate Liberals received 
Gioberti's ideas with favour and presently formed 
the party which, because it desired to place the 
Pope at the head of the Italian movement, was 
called the New Gueljs. 

Another Piedmontese writer, Cesare Balbo, 
though welcoming the suggestion that the Pope 



82 Cavour 

should head the confederation, argued that the 
first aspiration of Italians ought to be for the 
independence of their country, and that Austria 
ought therefore to be excluded from the Italian 
league. The fall of the Ottoman Empire was near, 
he said, and it was Austria's interest to extend her 
sway in the Balkan Peninsula and cede Lombardy- 
Venetia to Italy. 

Macaulay shows us the condition of the Papal 
States in those very years in which Gioberti and 
Balbo wished to put the revival of Italy into the 
Pope's hands. He was at Rome in 1838, and from 
there he wrote : 

The States of the Pope are, I suppose, the worst 
governed in the civilized world; and the imbecility 
of the police, the venality of the public servants, the 
desolation of the country, and the wretchedness of 
the people, force themselves on the observation of the 
most heedless traveller. It is hardly an exaggeration 
to say that the popiilation seems to consist chiefly of 
foreigners, priests, and paupers. 

In a report dated March 3, 1837, Baron Bimsen, 
the Prussian representative at Rome, also gave an 
extremely gloomy account of the States of the 
Church. What foreigners observed claimed the 
attention, too, of the distinguished poet Giuseppe 
Gioachino Belli. In his sonnets in Roman dialect 
he lashed that world of corruptors and corrupted, 
and helped to shake the respect even of the popu- 



Progress of Liberal Ideas 83 

lace for its institutions. And from Florence came 
an echo of the enthusiastic applause that had 
just greeted Niccolini's new tragedy Arnaldo da 
Brescia — ^a daring protest of Italian lay thought 
against the civil and poUtical supremacy of the 
Pope. 

But in spite of the great success of Niccolini's 
tragedy, the current of public opinion showed 
itself favourable to Gioberti's ideas. Pope 
Gregory XVI. alone seemed heedless of popular 
feeling. He responded to those pages of glowing 
praise of the Papacy by a still more furious per- 
secution of the Liberals. Just at that time an 
insurrection broke out at Rimini (1845). It was 
quickly suppressed, but it merits especial notice 
because of a manifesto, written by Luigi Carlo 
Farini (born in 18 12), in which the insurgent 
Liberals set forth their modest desires. They 
asked for a complete amnesty for political offenders ; 
civil and criminal codes, modelled on those of the 
other civilized peoples of Europe; municipal 
cotmcils, elected by the citizens and approved by 
the Pope; provincial councils, nominated by the 
Pope, each member of which was to be chosen by 
the Pope out of three persons presented by the 
municipal councils; a supreme Council of State, 
chosen by the Pope out of three persons presented 
by each of the provincial councils, and having 
power to decide in matters of finance as well as 
a consultative function with regard to all other 
subjects; all public offices and civil, military and 



84 Cavour 

judicial dignities to be reserved for laymen; a 
restriction of the censorship of the press; the dis- 
banding of the foreign troops and the formation 
of a militia. They demanded, in short, "that 
the government should promote all those social 
reforms which are called for by the spirit of the 
age, and by the example of all the civil govern- 
ments of Europe." 

Their demands were eminently just, and Mas- 
simo D'Azeglio, the distinguished Piedmontese 
novelist and painter, writing of these events in his 
little book Gli Ultimi Cast di Romagna, said it was 
not a case for conspiracy but for open protest, on 
every possible occasion, against all the injustices 
that were being committed : 

This conspiracy in the light of day, plainly labelled 
that all may know its nature, is the only kind that is 
useful or worthy of us and of public favour. . . . 
When a whole nation sees the justice of a change, 
and desires it, the thing is done. 

It was natural that these great demonstrations 
of public opinion should deeply impress Charles 
Albert, who in his heart of hearts still cherished 
the patriotic ambitions of a former time. In a 
manuscript of 1839, entitled Confiteor, he wrote: 

I confess that in 1821 I should have been more 
prudent if, notwithstanding my extreme youth, I 
had kept silent when I heard talk of war — of the desire 
to widen the king's dominions, to contribute to the 




CAMILLO CAVOUR 
From a photograph 




LUIGI CARLO FARINI 
From a contemporary print 



Progress of Liberal Ideas 85 

independence of Italy, to obtain, at the price of our 
blood, a power and an extension of territory that 
should secure the country's happiness. But those 
impetuosities of a young soldier's mind cannot now 
be denied by my grey hairs. Certainly in these 
moments I would not wish anything done contrary 
to the maxims of our holy religion; yet I feel that, to 
my last breath, my heart will beat high at the thought 
of Italy, and of independence from the foreigner. 

His aspirations were checked in part by his 
profound religious sentiment, which amounted, 
indeed, to mysticism. This alienated him from 
every thought of political liberty, in which he saw 
a menace to the Church as well as to the throne. 
But it did not prevent him from aiming at national 
independence, and while Italian public opinion 
was awakening he gradually revealed, amid the 
cloudy uncertainty of his views, the hatred that 
he felt for Austria. In April, 1846, he was so bold 
as to show indignation towards her on a question 
of customs-duties. Contrasted with the servility 
of all the other Italian States, his action seemed a 
great audacity, and it was enough to arouse again 
the faith of many Liberals in Charles Albert. 



VI 



REFORMS AND ENTHUSIASMS 

Fratelli d' Italia, 
L' Italia s' h desta; 
Dell' elmo di Scipio 
S' e cinta la testa. 
Dov' e la Vittoria? 
Le porge la chioma, 
Chh schiava di Roma 
Iddio la cre5. 

Stringiamci a coorte, 

Siam pronti aUa morte, 

Italia chiam6. 
Noi siamo da secoli 
Calpesti e derisi, 
Perche non siam popolo, 
Perch^ siam divisi. 
Raccolgaci un' unica, 
Bandiera, una speme; 
Di fonderci insieme 
Gik I'ora suonb. 
GoFFREDO Mameli (1828-1849): Itint.^ 

'Fellow-Italians, Italy has awakened; she has encircled her brow with 
Scipio's helmet. Where is Victory? She bows her head to you, for God 
made her the slave of Rome. Let us rally to the cohort; Italy has called 
us and we are ready — even unto death. For centuries we have been trampled 
on and scorned, since we are not a nation, but divided. Let us gather round 
a single banner, one hope; already the hour for union has struck. — Hymns. 



87 



CHAPTER VI 

REFORMS AND ENTHUSIASMS 

Enthusiasm for Pius IX. — Reforms in the Papal States, Tuscany 
and Piedmont — Cavour as journaHst — Condition of Lom- 
bardy-Venetia and the Duchies of Modena and Parma — 
Ferdinand II. of Naples — The Sicilian revolution and the 
concession of a Constitution to Naples — Charles Albert 
grants the Statute — Benedite o gran Dio, V Italia! 

THE election of Pope Pius IX. (June i6, 1846) 
marks the dawn of a new era for Italy. 
Pius IX. was a man of kindly disposition, animated 
by the best intentions, and he began his pontificate 
by granting an amnesty to political prisoners. 
To Italian minds prepared already by the New 
Guelf party, it seemed that the Pope of whom 
Gioberti dreamed had come — restorer of Italy's 
freedom and greatness. The enthusiasm thus 
aroused for Pius IX. assumed even greater pro- 
portions when it was known that he had appointed 
a commission of cardinals to inquire into the re- 
forms necessary for the States of the Church, and 
had ordered the making of plans for the construc- 
tion of railways, a benefit from which the Papal 
States had hitherto been excluded. Every time 
the new Pope went out from the Quirinal Palace 
89 



90 Cavour 

he was greeted with acclamations by the people, 
whose Viva Pio IX. expressed all the hopes and 
wishes of Italy. 

But the majority of the Roman Curia still held 
to the old views. Aided by the ambassadors of the 
absolutist Powers, and especially by the Austrian 
representative, they tried to restrain the Pope 
from carrying out the new policy, and as he 
was without any very definite ideas of his own, 
and at the bottom of his heart was anxious to dis- 
please nobody, the result was that he came to no 
conclusion. Months passed by and not one of the 
promised reforms was put into effect. The people 
now began to show their desires more clearly. 
Liberty of the press was taken before it was granted. 
From January, 1847, political journals began to 
appear at Rome and Bologna, the two chief cities 
of the State, and the club followed hard on the 
newspaper. At last, in April, 1847, the Pope 
announced the institution of the Council of State 
which had been demanded by the insurgents of 
Rimini in 1845; yet the opposition of the Curia 
prevented its meeting till November 15th. 

A year and more thus passed by without any 
essential change in the institutions of the Papal 
States; but a moral fact of high importance had 
shown itself — the reawakening of national con- 
sciousness. The whole peninsula was startled 
by the belief that the head of Christianity, hitherto 
regarded as the enemy of the new ideas, might 
instead be their defender. 




I 2 



Reforms and Enthusiasms 91 

In Tuscany the Grand Duke Leopold 11. had 
governed for more than twenty years. Tradition 
and his own weakness had led him to carry on the 
mild regime of his predecessors, and he seemed 
although of Austrian stock, to live on fairly good 
terms with his people. In fact Tuscany was con- 
sidered the happiest and most tranquil State in 
Italy. Yet even there, especially among the 
middle class, aspirations after a new order of 
things were not lacking. The first acts of Pius 
IX. stirred up this Liberal element, and it lost no 
opportunity of making the Grand Duke understand 
that he ought to follow the Pope's example. The 
Tuscan government was soon driven, by the incite- 
ment of public opinion, to grant some small 
measure of freedom to the press, and to introduce 
extensive judicial and administrative reforms. 

In the Kingdom of Sardinia Charles Albert, 
convinced that national independence ought to be 
the first aspiration of Italians, sought to concen- 
trate all the currents of public opinion on that 
object. He permitted, therefore, the warmly 
patriotic orations of the Congress of Scientists at 
Genoa in September, 1846, and the allusions to 
the expulsion of the Austrians from that city a 
himdred years before. At their last sitting the 
members of the Congress decided, almost in de- 
fiance of Austria, to hold the next congress at 
Venice. Meantime the Genoese, roused to a 
pitch of excitement, had resolved upon a solemn 
celebration of the anniversary of the expulsion of 



92 Cavour 

the Austrians, and it was held on December 5th 
amid great enthusiasm. For in reviving that 
memory of the past they were foretelling a speedy 
repetition. 

To put a stop to these Italian agitations the 
Grand Chancellor of Austria, Prince Mettemich, 
decided on a daring step (by way of threat) that 
was to coincide with a reactionary conspiracy in 
Rome and the provinces. By the treaties of 181 5 
Austria had gained the right to maintain a garrison 
in the citadel of Ferrara (papal territory). In 
August, 1847, these troops, equipped as for war, 
occupied the rest of the city, too, and their com- 
manding officer took the effective government of 
Ferrara from the Pope's representatives and 
assumed it himself. But the reactionary plots 
that were being organized in the Papal States 
were frustrated by the Liberals, and Austria's 
tyrannical action in Ferrara caused hot indigna- 
tion throughout Italy. Under the stimulus of 
public opinion Pius IX. entered an energetic 
protest, and Charles Albert offered his aid. Maz- 
zini himself joined in the general chorus that urged 
the Pope to liberate Italy. A civic guard was 
immediately organized in the Papal States and in 
Tuscany, the two provinces that seemed most in 
danger of an Austrian invasion, and in the warmth 
of popular feeling all the cities showed a readiness 
to lay aside their time-honoured discords and to 
hold festivals in honour of federation. This 
movement towards brotherhood developed amid 



Reforms and Enthusiasms 93 

a perfect deluge of poetry. The Italy of those 
days of 1847 could with truth be called the land 
of festivity, music, and song. 

Amid such circumstances the Agricultural Con- 
gress of Casale-Monferrato was held in September, 
1847. Many citizens of Lombardy-Venetia met 
in that Piedmontese town for the occasion, and 
the ties between the various provinces were drawn 
closer. The patriotic demonstrations were fer- 
vent enough, but what most impressed the mem- 
bers of the Congress was the reading of a letter 
from Charles Albert to an intimate friend, in 
which the Eang prophesied that the war of inde- 
pendence was at hand, and announced his readi- 
ness to put himself at the head of his army. The 
applause was extraordinary. Yet in Piedmont 
it was thought strange that a king so warm in 
patriotic affirmations had not yet introduced into his 
own realm the Liberal reforms that were at that 
very time being carried out at Rome and in Tus- 
cany. On the contrary, when a popular demon- 
stration was held at Turin on the evening of October 
I, 1847, praising King and Pope, and calling for 
reforms, it was violently repressed by the police. 
A young poet who was among the demonstrators 
went home that night and wrote a poem in which he 
described Charles Albert as a Re Tentenna (Wob- 
bling King). The description expressed the 
general feeling so well that his poem leaped into 
popularity in a single day. Who can say that 
those stanzas, wretched . enough as poetry, may 



94 Cavour 

not have exerted a decisive influence on the vacil- 
lating mind of the King? 

It was at this time that Charles Albert received 
a visit from Lord Minto, who, on behalf of the 
Ex.glish government, advised him to grant large 
reforms and free himself from reactionary coun- 
sellors. The last hesitations of the King were now 
overcome. On October 9th the Count Solaro 
della Margherita (who was the most distinguished 
representative of reactionary ideas, and had di- 
rected the foreign policy of Piedmont for fully 
twelve years) was relieved of his office. And at 
last, on October 30th, the King published a decree 
announcing the -desired reforms: free election of 
communal and provincial councillors; improve- 
ments in police and justice; a little liberty for the 
press. In Piedmont, as already at Rome and in 
Tuscany, political joiirnalism sprang at once into 
existence. Controlled by men of high intellect 
and heart, it was a powerful means of urging the 
government ever farther along the way of Liberal- 
ism, and of educating the Piedmontese people for 
a life of freedom. 

The first political newspaper to appear in 
Piedmont was II Risorgimento, founded and 
directed by Camillo Cavour. Although now 
thirty-seven years of age, Cavour was but little 
known and little imderstood even in his native 
Turin. The French reviews had only a small cir- 
culation in Italy, and the articles that he had 
published in them during recent years were un- 



96 Cavour 

disgust for Austrian rule became more and more 
general as the Liberal middle class grew in import- 
ance. The election of Pius IX., however, raised 
the hopes of the patriots and stimulated public 
spirit. In December, 1846, occurred thr death 
of Count Frederick Confalonieri, the illustrious 
ex-prisoner returned from the Spielberg, and his 
funeral at Milan was attended by an extraordinary 
number of citizens. It was proposed to subscribe 
for a monument in his memory, but the Austrian 
police vetoed the plan. Noisier demonstrations, 
with much shouting of Viva Pio IX., took place 
in Milan in September, 1847, on the occasion of the 
new Archbishop's entry. The police ill-treated 
the crowd and some were wounded. Hatred of 
the Austrian was thereby aggravated. The Con- 
gress of Scientists met at Venice that month, and 
many of its members found means of showing 
their patriotic sentiments. The advocate Daniel 
Manin (born in 1804) especially distinguished 
himself. He made it clear that the Venetians, 
too, were disposed to join the national movement. 
In December one of the members of the Lombard 
Congregation, Nazari, delegate of Bergamo, ad- 
dressed the Congregation on the discontent and 
unrest of the people, and proposed the appoint- 
ment of a commission "to examine closely the 
present condition of the coimtry, and, having 
investigated the causes of the discontent, to report 
upon them to the Congregation for its further 
proposals." Daniel Manin got possession of a 



,^..4' 



Reforms and Enthusiasms 95 

known to the Piedmontese public, who were con- 
sequently quite unaware of the vigorous workings 
of Cavour's mind. He had taken part in certain 
Liberal demonstrations, was one of the promoters 
of the Agricultural Association, and had helped 
to establish the first infant schools. But even 
this had not availed to remove the antipathy of 
the Liberal middle class. The bourgeoisie showed 
towards Camillo a little of the aversion that it 
felt for his father on account of his reactionary 
zeal in the office of Vicario of. Turin. It was 
thus amid rather unsympathetic conditions that 
Camillo Cavour's journalistic life began. 



While in Piedmont, in Tuscany and at Rome 
reforms were developing some measure of political 
life among the populace, in the other States of 
Italy events were taking a very different course. 

In Lombardy-Venetia the character of the 
government was but little modified under the new 
Emperor, Ferdinand -I. (who had succeeded his 
father, Francis I., in 1835), for in all measures the 
influence of the Grand Chancellor, Prince Met- 
temich, was even more powerful than before. 
Here, too, there had been a great development of 
industry and public works, and a remarkable 
growth of private prosperity, but this only in- 
creased the aversion for foreign domination. In 
the country districts the peasants showed indiffer- 
ence to every political idea, but in the towns 



Reforms and Enthusiasms 97 

copy of this resolution. After a vain attempt to 
induce some member of the Venetian Congrega- 
tion to bring it before that body, he himself drew 
up a requisition, inviting the assembly to follow 
the Lombard Congregation's example. Similar 
proposals were laid also before the Municipality 
of Venice. On December 30th, the eminent 
writer Nicol6 Tommaseo (born in 1802) read to 
the Athenaeum of Venice a discourse on the condi- 
tion of literature in Italy. Speaking of the cen- 
sorship of the press in the Austrian States, he 
pointed out that the right to discuss political sub- 
jects had been conferred by a law of 181 5, and 
demanded that the government should uphold it. 

The Austrian government took alarm at these 
Italian agitations. It redoubled the vigilance of 
the police, and sent reinforcements to the army 
that was already in Italy under the command of 
Marshal Radetzky. When the Milanese combined 
to boycott the tobacco sold by the government 
in the first days of January, 1848, the police 
abandoned themselves to such violent excesses 
that massacres occurred in the streets. Scenes of 
a like kind were enacted at Pavia and Padua in 
February. Manin and Tommaseo were after- 
wards arrested at Venice. By this time brute 
force was the sole support of the Austrian govern- 
ment in Lombardy-Venetia. 

A treaty was made between Austria and the 
new Duke of Modena, Francis V. (who succeeded 
his father, Francis IV., in 1846), by which the 



98 Cavour 

contracting parties pledged themselves to aid 
each other by every means in their power when- 
ever one party so requested of the other. It 
meant that the Duke of Modena was invoking 
the intervention of Austria in order to check the 
Liberal demonstrations that were happening now 
in his country also. The treaty went on to say: 

As by this agreement the States of the Duke of 
Modena enter into the line of defence of the Italian 
provinces of the Emperor of Austria, the Duke gives 
to the Emperor the right of sending imperial troops 
into Modenese territory, and of taking possession of 
Modenese fortresses, whenever the interests of com- 
mon defence and military prudence may so demand. 

The Duchy of Modena might therefore now be 
considered as annexed to the Austrian provinces of 
Italy. A little later the Duchy of Parma was 
reduced to the same condition. For the Duchess 
Marie Louise died on December 17, 1847, and was 
succeeded (according to the arrangement made at 
the Congress of Vienna) by Charles Louis of 
Bourbon, at that time Duke of Lucca, who, to 
make sure of his new possession, entered into a 
treaty with Austria analogous to that concluded 
by the Duke of Modena. One other sovereign 
also had no intention of adopting the policy of 
reform — Ferdinand IL, of Naples, a ruler of 
vulgar mind and low instincts, who thoroughly de- 
served the title of the Beggar King {Re Lazzarone). 
He had come to the throne in 1830, when little 



Reforms and Enthusiasms 99 

more than twenty years old, but had soon made 
his worst qualities known. None but men devoid 
of a sense of dignity were about him, for he re- 
spected nobody and ridiculed all. Avaricious, he 
pushed the economy of his administration to the 
point of leaving his officials unpaid and letting 
them increase their salaries by accepting bribes. 
Superstitious, he allowed himself to be inspired 
in all affairs of State by his confessor and the 
Jesuits. Greedy of power, he would hear nothing 
of constitutional government. "My people have 
no need to think," he used to say; "I look after 
their well-being and their honour." And he did 
it so well that he made his government the worst 
in Italy. Cruel, even savage, by instinct, he had 
been restrained a little by his first wife (Maria 
Cristina of Savoy, daughter of Victor Emmanuel 
I.) from brutal treatment of his subjects during 
the early years of his reign. But after the death, 
in 1836, of that gentle and saintly woman, he 
married an Austrian archduchess, who, so far 
from counselling clemency, urged him on to 
greater severities. Agitation and tumult occurred 
often in the kingdom, and in 1837 a real in- 
surrection broke out in Sicily, but Ferdinand II. 
re-established order by ferocious measures of repres- 
sion. The election of Pius IX. produced the same 
excitement there as in the rest of Italy; but, since 
nothing could be hoped of the King, revolution 
was invoked by secret publications. Among them 
was a little book entitled Protest of the People of 



100 Cavour 

the Two Sicilies. It made a great impression, but 
fortunately the police were unable to discover its 
author — Professor Luigi Settembrini. There were 
open revolts at Reggio in Calabria and at Messina 
on September ist and 2d, 1847, though without 
any result save fresh and fiercer persecutions. 
Yet Sicily was by this time so completely imbued 
with the spirit of opposition to the Neapolitan 
government that in the early days of January, 
1848, some one had the courage to post a daring 
proclamation at the street corners of Palermo, 
inviting the people to rise on January 12th. The 
invitation was welcomed and the revolution broke 
out. The officers in command of the troops, 
fearing to send their men out of the fortresses and 
barracks, stood strictly on the defensive — ^not that 
they were intimidated by the few hundred armed 
insurgents who swept through the streets on the 
first day of the rising, but because they felt that 
every citizen was stirred by the roar of revolt. 
Bands from the country districts came in, that 
night, to help the insurgents, and next day other 
citizens, encouraged by success, took arms, imtil 
the whole city, forgetting prudence and despising 
peril, had entered into the struggle. After fifteen 
days of fighting, the Bourbon troops were com- 
pelled to leave Palermo. The other towns of 
Sicily were not slow to follow Palermo's example, 
and a provisional government, independent of 
Naples, was soon organized for the island. 
The events at Palermo caused great excitement 



Reforms and Enthusiasms loi 

at Naples. The Liberals, emboldened, ventured 
to demand a constitution from the King. Seeing 
his crown in danger, Ferdinand II. by a decree of 
January 28th (published on the morning of the 
29th) promised a constitution modelled on that of 
France of 1830. It entrusted the legislative power 
to two Chambers — one of Peers, nominated for 
life by the King; the other of Deputies, elected by 
the nation. In this way Naples outstripped the 
other Italian States, which had so far granted 
merely a number of reforms, and put itself at the 
head of the national movement. How easily past 
wrongs are forgotten in present contentment! 
At once the Neapolitans forgot the traditional 
perjury of the Bourbons. Unbounded acclama- 
tions greeted the King; and Gabriele Rossetti, 
who in London was suffering exile for the crime of 
believing the solemn oath of Ferdinand I. and of 
singing the praises of the constitution of 1820, 
sent once more in his trustfulness a new hymn to be 
sung before the palace of Ferdinand II. 



A highly characteristic event had happened in 
Piedmont early in January, 1848. The Genoese, 
wishing to hasten Charles Albert's progress 
towards Liberalism, sent a deputation to Turin to 
petition the King for the expulsion of the Jesuits, 
and for the institution of a civic guard such as 
had already been formed in Tuscany and at Rome. 
The journalists of Turin met on January 7th to 



102 Cavour 

decide how they could best support the demands 
of the Genoese. While nearly everybody present 
inclined to a mere expression of sympathy with 
the Genoese deputation, the editor of // Risor- 
gimento openly declared that what ought to be 
demanded was not a civic guard and the expulsion 
of the Jesuits, but a constitution. Thus from the 
very beginning of his journalistic career, Camillo 
Cavour showed that he possessed, in eminent 
degree, the true characteristic of the statesman 
— rapid and exact perception of the situation. 
His proposal led to an animated discussion. Some 
held it premature and voiced their doubts. Per- 
haps the distrust that was felt for the sincerity 
of Cavour' s Liberal opinions aroused in some a 
suspicion of invidious designs. The decision was 
postponed till the following evening. Meanwhile 
the King refused to receive the Genoese deputa- 
tion. Nevertheless those journalists who had 
approved of Cavour' s idea did not recede from 
their position, and at the second meeting they 
signed an address to the King praying for a con- 
stitution. The address was sent by post. A few 
days later Charles Albert spoke of it to the Mar- 
quis Roberto D'Azeglio, brother of Massimo. 
The King asserted explicitly that soldiers, not 
lawyers, were needed for the liberation of Italy, 
and that in the interests of national independence 
itself he was determined never to grant a constitu- 
tion. In taking up this attitude he was moved 
also by a belief that he was permanently bound by 



Reforms and Enthusiasms 103 

the declaration that he had subscribed in 1824, 
after his return from the expedition into Spain — 
a declaration that he would not alter the funda- 
mental laws of the kingdom. 

But matters were precipitated by the events of 
Sicily and Naples. At Turin, too, great demon- 
strations were made; the municipalities of Turin, 
Genoa, Alessandria, Novara and Vercelli demanded 
a constitution; and at last, on February 8, 1848, 
Charles Albert promised the required decree. 

It is well to notice that this Piedmontese Con- 
stitution (which was afterwards extended to the 
rest of the peninsula and still rules Italy to-day) 
was promised and, in its essentials, fixed by the 
decree of February 8, 1848, although it was not 
promulgated till March 4th. It preceded the 
Parisian revolution of February 24th, and this 
fact explains its being modelled on the French 
constitution of 1830, which was still in force at 
that date. 

A similar constitution was granted to Tuscany 
by its Grand Duke, Leopold II., under compulsion 
of public opinion. 

A new era, bright with promise, was now begin- 
ning. In those very days of February, 1848, the 
Pope sent forth from the Quirinal the noble 
blessing: Benedite, gran Dio, V Italia! These 
magic words went to the hearts of Italians just 
at the moment when the thrill of the popular 
victory in the streets of Paris was passing through 
all Europe. So they acquired, for Italians, a 



I04 Cavour 

prophetic significance much greater than the Pope 
imagined. Benediction upon Italy must mean 
malediction upon the foreigner who dominated her, 
and who at that moment was staining the streets 
of her cities with Italian blood. The God whom 
the Italians were invoking (the poet Giovanni 
Prati openly declared it) was the formidable God 
of Vengeance! 



VII 



1848: THE YEAR OF ILLUSIONS AND OF POETRY 

O gi ornate del nostra riscatto! 
O dolente per sempre colui, 
Che da lunge, dal labbro d'altrui 
Come un uomo straniero, le udrk! 
Che ai suoi figli narrandole un giomo, 
Dovr^ dir sospirando: "io non c'era," 
Che la santa, la invitta bandiera 
Salutata in quel di non avra ! 
Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873): Octave 

added in 1848 to the Ode Marzo, 1821.^ 

' Oh, days of our redemption I Oh, for ever sorrowful he who shall hear of 
them from afar, from the lips of others, as though a foreigner; who, some 
day telling the story of them to his children, shall have to say, with a sigh, 
"I was not there"; who shall not have saluted, in those times, the sacred, 
unconquered banner I 



105 



CHAPTER VII 

1848: THE YEAR OF ILLUSIONS AND OF POETRY 

Venice and Milan free themselves from Austrian dominion — 
The war of independence — The Parliaments of Sicily, Naples, 
Rome, Tuscany and Piedmont — Austrian victories and 
armistice — Garibaldi — Ferdinand II. makes war against 
Sicily — Flight of the Pope and the Grand Duke — Piedmont 
at the beginning of 1849. 

THE effects of the Parisian revolution of 1848 
were felt in almost every part of Europe. Even 
Vienna, the capital of Austria, rose and demanded 
a constitution. And the news of that rising 
stirred all Lombardy and Venetia to revolt. 

-At Venice the people ran to the prisons, and by 
main force set Manin and Tommaseo free. Next 
they formed a civic guard. Finally they seized 
the arsenal, and drove the military commander 
from the city. On March 22, 1848, the fall of 
the Austrian domination was announced and a 
republic proclaimed, with Daniel Manin as 
President of the provisional government. 

At Milan the revolution took a more sanguinary 

course. There arms and money were ready ; and 

on March i8th barricades were thrown up and the 

whole city rose to expel the foreigner. For five 

107 



io8 Cavour 

successive days and nights the struggle lasted. 
It ended in the people's victory. Events of that 
kind happened, too, in the other cities of Lombardy 
and Venetia, and by the end of March the Austrian 
arniy in Italy held nothing but the territory 
between the Mincio and the Adige, where it was 
able to shut itself up in the fortresses of Mantua, 
Peschiera, Verona and Legnago — the famous 
Quadrilateral. 

At tidings such as these, one impulse alone was 
felt in every Italian breast. To hasten to their 
brothers' aid in the struggle with the foreigner 
was the sole thought of all Italians. At Turin in 
particular the effect of the Five Days of Milan 
was prodigious. While the government still 
wavered, Camillo Cavour published a rousing 
article in // Risorgimento of March 23d. The 
opening passage ran as follows: 

The supreme hour for the monarchy of Savoy has 
struck — the hour of firm decision, the hour on which 
the fate of empires and of peoples depends. In view 
of the events of Lombardy and Vienna, hesitation, 
doubt, delay are possible no longer; of all policies 
they would be the most calamitous. We men of 
cool judgment, accustomed to pay more attention 
to the dictates of reason than to the impulses 
of the heart, feel bound in conscience to declare, 
after carefully weighing our every word, that one 
way only is open to the nation, the government, 
the king. That way is war — war immediate and 
without delay. 



1848: Year of Illusions 109 

That night the council of ministers, under 
Charles Albert's presidency, decided to fight; and 
the King, in announcing this decision to his people, 
told them that he had adopted as his standard the 
Italian tricolour that for so long had been con- 
sidered the symbol of revolution. Nor was it from 
Piedmont alone that help in the war of independence 
came. The example of Lombardy and Venetia had 
stimulated Parma and Modena to rise; they had 
quickly driven out their Dukes and the Austrian 
troops, and had ptirsued them to the Quadrilateral. 
And in Tuscany, in the Papal States and in the 
Kingdom of Naples popular enthusiasm compelled 
the princes to take a part in the great fight for 
freedom from the foreign yoke. In that wonder- 
ful spring of 1848 every one believed that Italy's 
servitude was verily at an end. 

And the first battles were favourable to the 
Italians. The most glorious fight of the campaign 
was that of May 30th, in which the Piedmontese, 
commanded by Charles Albert himself, who from 
the opening of the war had served in the field, 
won the victory of Goito and finally took the 
fortress of Peschiera. 



Political elections and the calling of Parliaments 
in all the Italian States coincided with the outbreak 
of the war of independence. 

The Sicilian Parliament was the first to meet 
(March 25th). It confirmed the appointment of 



no Cavour 

the venerable Admiral Ruggero Settimo as Presi- 
dent of the provisional government, and turned 
afterwards to the discussion of the new political 
institutions that should be given to Sicily. At 
that time the main current of public opinion in 
Italy was set towards federation, not unity. 
Hence the Sicilians' project of constituting a 
separate kingdom, which should afterwards be 
allied to the other States of Italy. Secret nego- 
tiations were begun with Ferdinand II. of Naples, 
to induce him to cede the crown of the island 
to one of his sons; but he refused. Parliament 
thereupon declared (April 13th) that the Bourbon 
dynasty had for ever forfeited the Sicilian throne. 
As a sign of adhesion to the war of independence 
a contingent of volunteers, numbering about a 
hundred, was sent into Lombardy. But revolt 
from Naples was the great preoccupation. While 
the constitution was being drawn up a sovereign 
was sought among the Italian princes, and on 
July loth the second son of Charles Albert, 
Ferdinand, Duke of Genoa, was imanimously 
elected, though the hated "Ferdinand" in his name 
was suppressed and he was proclaimed king as 
Albert Amedeo I. But to the Sicilian deputa- 
tion that carried to him this offer of the crown he 
said that Italy's need of soldiers was greater than 
ever; that he was a soldier first; and that his desire 
was to fight for Italy. However, by his father's 
advice he took time to consider his reply. In 
such circumstances as these the provisional 



1848: Year of Illusions iii 

government of Sicily appeared weak and insecure. 
Ferdinand II. of Naples, on the contrary, had at 
the back of his mind a very definite programme. 
He wished to hear neither of a constitution nor of 
war with Austria, and he was waiting only for an 
opportune moment to withdraw the concessions 
that he had made. It is .not surprising, therefore, 
that the Neapolitan Parliament was violently 
dissolved by the King on the very day (May 15th) 
on which it met for the first time. Ferdinand 
wished to turn to his own advantage the opposi- 
tion shown towards him on that day by the depu- 
ties and the Liberal bourgeoisie, who, not without 
reason, distrusted his intentions. With his faith- 
ful troops he speedily put down all timiult and 
dispersed the House. Some of the deputies 
signed a protest, drawn up by the advocate 
Pasquale Stanislao Mancini, against "this act 
of blind and incorrigible despotism." And the 
Piedmontese Parliament, when it received the 
news of these events at Naples, showed its indigna- 
tion at the perfidy of King Ferdinand, and the 
Foreign Minister himself, as well as several depu- 
ties, expressed in eloquent language its Liberal 
and Italian sentiments. Meanwhile Ferdinand 
had sent to General Guglielmo Pepe, in command 
of the Neapolitan troops that had set out for the 
scene of war, an order to bring them back. Rather 
than obey so treacherous a king, the old General 
resigned his office and invited the soldiers to 
follow him across the Po and fight for national 



112 Cavour 

independence, but only a few hundred agreed to 
his audacious proposal. At this time Ferdinand, 
not yet daring to throw off the mask entirely, 
modified the electoral laws and caused fresh 
elections to be held on the revised lists. Never- 
theless the new Parliament, although it showed 
great moderation of ideas, was not kept sitting 
for long. Summoned for July 1st, it was closed 
on September 5th. 

But the man who had first set the example of 
withdrawing from the national movement was 
Pius IX., himself — Pius, whose reforms had given 
that movement its earliest impetus. Weak of 
character, disinclined for any glorious undertaking 
that involved toil and danger, he had never 
dreamed of becoming the herald of a revolution; 
he had merely wished to improve somewhat the 
conditions of his subjects. But the current of public 
opinion swept him further and further along, until 
at last, after the Parisian revolution of February, 
he was obliged to establish a constitutional govern- 
ment in the Papal States. His uncertainties and 
hesitations increased with every new concession. 
When the war with Austria broke out he was com- 
pelled to let his troops go; but the reactionary 
infiuences around him worked up in him the fear 
of a fresh German schism, and he thereupon 
decided to recall his army. On April 29th he 
openly announced in Consistory that as represen- 
tative on earth of the God of Peace he could not 
desire the war, and that he held both Austrian 



1848: Year of Illusions 113 

and Italian in one paternal embrace. This 
attitude, exhibited precisely at the moment when 
the struggle between Italian and Austrian was at 
its fiercest, aroused hot indignation in the penin- 
sula. There were tumults at Rome, and the Pope, 
yielding once more to popular pressure, allowed 
his men to continue fighting in North Italy. But 
everybody now understood that the Pope was no 
longer in agreement with the Italian people. 
Henceforth his constitutional ministers tried to 
make him say more than he wished, and he sought 
every opportunity of retracting even that which 
he had been induced to say. An address which 
Mamiani had prepared for the opening of Parlia- 
ment on June 5th was so extensively altered by 
the Pope that his Ministers that same day offered 
their resignations. Cardinal Altieri alone met 
the House, and his sole announcement to it was a 
brief, simple greeting on the Pope's behalf. Finally, 
after some days of dispute and hesitation, the 
Pope allowed Mamiani to deliver to Parliament 
an address in which it was said that "our prince, 
as father of all the faithful, prays, blesses and 
pardons; as sovereign and constitutional ruler, 
he leaves to your wisdom the transacting of the 
greater part of the temporal business." The 
Italian movement was treated as an event fore- 
ordained by Providence: 

In the history of peoples there are some supreme 
moments in which the spirit of nationality takes 



1 14 Cavour 

possession of them so strongly, and moves them so 
violently, that any opposing or hostile force not merely 
becomes weak but seems to be transformed into a 
stimulus and ferment. At a time of such solemnity 
a single thought, a single sentiment, a single unshak- 
able determination invades and warms all hearts. 
Unanimity — so spontaneous and complete, so fruitful 
in prodigies, seems wonderful even to those who share 
it, and makes them utter with devout enthusiasm 
those words so full of power and significance: "God 
wills it."'' 

But a Httle later the Pope disowned the Minister's 
policy in relation to the war. The public saw 
that the one was trying to drag the other along 
the path that he meant to pursue; and owing 
to the inconsistencies thus produced both lost 
influence and authority. 

At Florence the Grand Duke in person opened 
the Tuscan Parliament, on June 26th, in the great 
Sola dei Cmquecento. The weak ministry over 
which Cosimo Ridolfi presided had to face a lively 
opposition from the Left, which had no difficulty 
in exposing the sluggishness of a government 
driven forward by a current of opinion which it 
was powerless to control. 

The Duchies of Parma and Modena had pro- 
nounced, by plebiscite, for annexation to the 
Kingdom of Sardinia. Lombardy, on May 29th, 
did the same. Venice, on the contrary, proclaimed 

' The watchword of those who joined the First Crusade at the 
Council of Clermont. 



1848: Year of Illusions 115 

a republic. In the province of Lombardy-Venetia, 
which was the theatre of war, poHtical thought was 
naturally concentrated on the struggle with the 
foreigner. In June the Marshal Radetzky, com- 
mander of the Austrian forces, who had main- 
tained a position within the Quadrilateral but was 
annoyed by the loss of Peschiera, determined to 
restore the morale of his troops by the reduction 
of the Venetian district, where only bands of 
insurgents and the Papal troops were to be met. 
By this means, too, he would facilitate the advance 
of the Austrian reinforcements which he expected. 
Leaving a few thousand men in the fortresses to 
deceive and obstruct Charles Albert, he flung out 
most of his troops against Vicenza, which in spite 
of a courageous defence was obliged to capitulate 
(June nth). Then, while marching hastily back 
to the Quadrilateral to face Charles Albert, he 
sent some of his forces to occupy Padua and 
Treviso. 

In view of these Austrian successes the idea of 
relying upon Charles Albert prevailed even in 
Venice. An Assembly was held in the hall of the 
Doge's palace, and after a short discussion it 
approved (July 4th) the motion of Paleocapo for 
a union with Piedmont. Daniel Manin himself 
invited his party to sacrifice the republican idea 
in the interests of independence. 

The Piedmontese elections had been held in 
April. Parliament met for the first time on May 
8th, The inaugural address was delivered by a 



ii6 Cavour 

cousin of the King, the Prince Eugene of Savoy- 
Carignano, who had been appointed Lieutenant- 
General of the Kingdom during the absence of 
Charles Albert at the war. Tumultuous applause 
greeted especially that passage of the address in 
which it was said that "the separate parts of Italy 
tend every day to draw more closely together, 
and there is great hope, therefore, that a common 
agreement may bind the peoples, whom Nature 
intended to form a single nation." Next day 
(May 9th) before the House of Deputies turned 
to its regular labours, one of the members, Lorenzo 
Valerio, of the democratic newspaper La Concordia, 
rose to submit a preliminary resolution: 

In the serious circumstances in which our country 
finds itself — while war roars over the plains of Lom- 
bardy; while at Rome (whence so many moral aids, 
so much faith in the happiness of our beloved country, 
came to us) the sky, formerly so clear, is darkening; 
while battalions of armed men are assembling beyond 
the Alps ; while our hearts are sad for the brave men 
who have fallen in the ranks of our army; while our 
troops are fighting valiantly, I would venture to say 
prodigiously, in this holy war — I believe I shall inter- 
pret the wishes of us all, and of the people which 
sends us here to be its instrument, if I propose that we 
should address to our gallant army, and to the valiant 
King who commands it, a word of confidence, of 
thanks, and of solemn assurance that in the present 
great emergency the whole country is ready to give 
its last drop of blood, its last soldier, its last coin to 



1848: Year of Illusions 117 

ensure the final victory of the Italian nation, so that 
each one of us, when death comes, may be able to say: 
"I, too, have helped in this sacred and most noble 
work." I propose, therefore, that it be recorded in 
the minutes that the deputies of the nation are 
unwilling and unable to allow their first sitting to pass 
without solemnly testifying to the profound gratitude 
and confidence which the entire country feels for the 
King and the army. 

The proposal was greeted with unanimous 
acclamations ; and a few days later, when the cre- 
dentials of the elected delegates had been duly 
verified, the House affirmed its sentiments afresh 
by the nomination of Vincenzo Gioberti, as 
president. 

Camillo Cavour was unable to take part in these 
first sittings of the Piedmontese House, for al- 
though he had been nominated as a candidate for 
three Constituencies he was not elected in any. 
Hence while those political assemblies, that he 
had so desired to see established, were being 
inaugurated in Piedmont, his great political gifts 
could be shown only in the columns of his news- 
paper. But he was a successful candidate in the 
by-elections of June 26th, and he entered the 
House when it was beginning to be preoccupied 
with the reverses suffered in the war. 

After the insurrection of March the Italians 
had unfortunately considered a return of the 



ii8 Cavour 

Austrians impossible. They had, therefore, neg- 
lected to concentrate their whole energies upon the 
war. Not all the young men who sang warlike 
hymns hurried to the front; many who went 
quickly tired of military service. The subsequent 
withdrawal of the Neapolitan militia, and the 
capitulation of the Roman troops at Vicenza, made 
success more difficult. Meantime the Austrians 
received reinforcements and were reanimated by 
their successes in the district of Venice, which was 
almost entirely reduced to submission. Radetzky 
now decided to take the offensive against Charles 
Albert. With his whole strength he attacked the 
Piedmontese on the heights of Custoza, between 
the Mincio and the Adige. The battle raged for 
three days (July 23-25), but at last the Piedmon- 
tese army had to retreat beyond the Mincio and 
fall back on Milan. Fighting was renewed be- 
neath the walls of Milan on August 4th, and again 
it was unfavourable to the Piedmontese. The 
council of generals declared that any resistance 
in Milan was impossible. The King therefore 
was obliged to abandon the city (which was there- 
upon occupied afresh by the Austrians) and with- 
draw into Piedmont. On August 9, 1848, an 
armistice was concluded, by which it was settled 
that the frontier of the two States should be the 
boundary-line between the two armies. 

But a willingness to observe this armistice was 
not universal; and among those who sought to 
carry on the war Garibaldi must be mentioned 



1848: Year of Illusions 119 

first. His had been an adventiirous life since 
that day of 1834 o^ which the young seaman of 
Nice was obliged to flee from Italy. He went 
to South America, where his romantic and poetic 
temperament found free scope in the life of a 
corsair in the service of the Republic of Rio 
Grande, which had thrown off the rule of Brazil. 
It involved six years of ceaseless struggle, marked 
by all possible mischances — shipwreck, privation, 
defeat, imprisonment. But his daring brought 
him through every peril. Going afterwards to 
Monte Video, he accepted in 1842, the command of 
a little flotilla in opposition to Rosas, the terrible 
dictator of the Argentine Republic, who desired 
to impose his will also upon Uruguay. Here too, 
in a series of engagements by land and sea. Gari- 
baldi performed prodigies of valour. He formed 
a legion of Italians, who adopted as their imiform 
the picturesque red shirt and white breeches, and 
as their standard a black banner bearing the device 
of a volcano in eruption — a symbol of Italy in 
mourning but with a sacred fire in her breast. 
At the head of these legionaries he carried out 
enterprises that seemed impossible. The most 
glorious of their exploits was that of February 8, 
1846, on the plains of S. Antonio, near Salto; a 
handful of Italians, surrounded by a large hostile 
force, defended themselves heroically for a whole 
day, and then accomplished a retreat of six miles 
to the fortress of Salto, though harassed continu- 
ally by the enemy. News of these deeds of daring 



I20 Cavour 

reached Italy just when the peninsula was awaking 
to new life, and the bravery of men who were 
raising the reputation of Italian valour so high 
was felt to be an augury of Italy's destinies. A 
subscription was opened for the ptirpose of pre- 
senting a sword to the valiant leader, whose name, 
hitherto unknown, became immediately famous. 
In 1848, on hearing of the developments in Italy, 
Garibaldi set out from Monte Video with a band 
of comrades in arms, and, reaching Italy at the 
end of June, hastened to Charles Albert's head- 
quarters in order to offer his services to the King 
in whose name he had, in 1834, been condemned 
to death. But Charles Albert, surrounded by 
men who were afraid of the consequences of 
arming the people, received the fiery captain from 
America with hesitation; and Garibaldi, weary of 
the King's vacillations and the evasions of the 
Ministers, offered his aid to the provisional govern- 
ment of Milan, which gave him command of the 
volunteers scattered between Milan and Bergamo. 
He had scarcely organized this corps of volunteers 
when the armistice of August 9th was declared. 
Garibaldi was unwilling to recognize it, and at the 
head of a thousand men maintained himself in 
arms for two or three weeks on the shores of Lake 
Maggiore. Then, pursued by a whole army-corps, 
he was compelled to take refuge in Switzerland. 

Venice, too, would hear nothing of the armistice. 
Charles Albert's commissioners, who had held the 
reins of government since the annexation, withdrew 




GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI 
Photo by Alfieri Lacroix 



1848: Year of Illusions 121 

on August nth. Daniel Manin told the people, 
assembled in the great square, that within two 
days the Assembly would be called together in 
order to nominate a new government. "For those 
forty-eight hours," he added amid deafening 
cheers, "I govern." On August 13th, the As- 
sembly, interpreting the feeling of the coimtry, con- 
stituted a provisional government and entrusted 
the presidency to Daniel Manin, who continued 
to show high political judgment. 

Thus, although the whole of the Lombardo- 
Venetian province had attempted to shake off 
the Austrian yoke, Venice alone remained free — ■ 
protected by her lagoons. In the Duchies of 
Parma and Modena also Austrian troops restored 
the old governments. 

Ferdinand II. of Naples was overjoyed at the 
Austrian victories. He was now sufficiently em- 
boldened to prorogue the Neapolitan Parliament, 
and his armies attempted the reconquest of Sicily. 
By this time, after the disasters of the war with 
Austria, Charles Albert's second son had defi- 
nitely refused the Sicilian crown. The provisional 
government of Palermo had to face the conflict 
alone. It had made no great preparations for 
armed resistance; yet when, on September 3d, 
the Bourbon fleet appeared off Messina and opened 
. a bombardment, while from the citadel, which had 
all along been in the hands of Bourbon troops, a 
fire not less terrible was directed on the city, the 



122 Cavour 

inhabitants conducted the struggle with heroism. 
Time after time they drove back the Neapolitans 
who had landed from the fleet. On September 
7th the enemy effected an entrance into the city, 
but even there the desperate defence was kept up 
from house to house till the Bourbon troops, to 
end it, set fire to several quarters. Then, victors 
at last, they gave themselves up to the worst of 
excesses. The horrors were so great that the 
commanders of the French and English fleets off 
the Sicilian coasts intervened to stop such bar- 
barity. They imposed a truce, which King Fer- 
dinand was obliged to respect, and then, making 
themselves mediators, opened negotiations that 
lasted several months. 

In the Papal States, amid constant opposition 
between Pope, ministers and public opinion, the 
Government was working badly. Yet there was 
one man of high ability and strong character who 
believed he could make himself master of the 
situation. That man was Pellegrino Rossi. From 
his youth he had shown patriotic sentiments; in 
1 8 15, when Murat proclaimed the war of independ- 
ence, he threw up the duties of a professor of law 
in the University of Bologna to follow, as a civil 
commissioner, the army of the King of Naples. 
On the failure of the expedition he went into exile 
— first to England, then to Geneva, finally to 
Paris, where he was appointed a professor at 
the College de France and distinguished himself 
among the most eminent economists. Afterwards 



1848: Year of Illusions 123 

Louis Philippe sent him as ambassador to Rome, 
and there he stayed as a private citizen after the 
proclamation of the French Republic. In Sep- 
tember, 1848, it seemed to the Roman Ciuia that 
Rossi was the man suited to the grave circum- 
stances of the time; and, under the delusion that 
he could reconcile the government of the Pope 
with the spirit of liberty and modem progress, he 
assumed his difficult office with zeal and courage. 
His first aim was to restore the prestige of the 
Government, and to maintain order and tranquil- 
lity in the State. Thus he drew upon himself the 
hatred of the street-agitators, who under his weak 
predecessors had developed great audacity. At 
the same time he was opposed by the reactionary 
party, who wanted none of his administrative 
and financial reforms; his lukewarmness on the 
question of the war against Austria cost him the 
support of the patriots; and he was personally 
disliked by many people on account of his arrogant 
bearing. A strong wave of hostile feeling was 
stirred up against him. On November 15th he 
was assassinated while ascending the staircase of 
the Palazzo della Cancelleria, where the Roman 
Parliament held its sittings. And the citizens 
showed no indignation at the crime — so completely 
were moral principles obscured, in those days, by 
the fury of party strife. The Radicals, thinking to 
profit by the general bewilderment, raised a tumult 
in order to impose a ministry of their own views 
on Pius IX. The Pope submitted to the clamour 



124 Cavour 

of the mob; but a few days later (on the night of 
November 24th) he fled secretly from Rome and 
took refuge in the castle of Gaeta, which was placed 
at his disposal by King Ferdinand of Naples. 
Thus Pius also made it clear that he had definitely 
abandoned the national cause. In Rome, amid 
stormy agitations, the idea prevailed of calling a 
Constituent Assembly to decide the future of the 
State. 

It may be said in general that in 1848 the more 
temperate elements were uppermost everywhere 
from the first; but, for the carrying out of their 
policy, which was to proceed by agreement with 
the ruling princes, it was necessary that the latter 
should embrace the national cause with sincerity. 
The rulers acted otherwise, and the Moderate 
policy was doomed to failure. Even in Tuscany 
the government passed into the hands of the 
Radicals. Distrust of the Grand Duke led to fre- 
quent agitations, especially at Leghorn. On Octo- 
ber 27, 1848, the Grand Duke realized that he must 
appoint a democratic ministry. Montanelli, the 
professor, and Guerrazzi, the novelist, were mem- 
bers of it. But a little later, seeing the course that 
events were taking, the Grand Duke withdrew to 
Siena, the centre of the reactionary party (January 
20, 1849); afterwards he followed the example 
of Pius IX. and fled to Gaeta. A provisional 
government with Guerazzi (born in 1804) as its 
most important personage, was organized in 
Tuscany. 



1848: Year of Illusions 125 

In Piedmont also the most inflammable elements 
tried to gain the upper hand. Camillo Cavour, 
persuaded that their excesses would bring the 
country into the gravest perils, fought the Radicals 
fiercely in his newspaper and in the House. He 
had not yet succeeded in overcoming the old anti- 
pathies that were attached to his name, and now 
he became still more unpopular. His speeches 
often caused an uproar in Parliament, but he 
refused to be perturbed by hostile demonstra- 
tions. "The uproar will not deter me," he said 
once; "for I shall continue even with this not very 
agreeable accompaniment." And on another oc- 
casion: "That which I hold to be the truth, I shall 
utter — in spite of tumults and hisses. He who 
interrupts me insults not me but the House." 

The situation in Piedmont was exceedingly 
grave. The prestige of the royal army had been 
shattered; during the retreat the King himself 
had suffered the most atrocious insults at Milan. 
The exchequer was empty. The general discon- 
tent was driving political parties into extreme 
courses. Yet the idea of renewing the war 
dominated the minds of all. The man who at that 
time enjoyed the greatest influence was Gioberti; 
and as the Democrats began to give him their 
ardent support, Charles Albert, overcoming his 
repugnance, decided in December, 1848, to entrust 
Gioberti with the responsibility of forming a new 
ministry. Side by side with Gioberti in this 
democratic cabinet stood the advocate Urbano 



126 Cavour 

Rattazzi (born in 1810), who had already acquired 
a leading position in the House by a ready intellect, 
oratorical power and political sagacity. 

On December 16, 1848, in introducing the new 
ministry to the House, Gioberti declared that the 
first principles of his programme were "the defence 
of our nationality and the development of insti- 
tutions." " Italian nationality," he added, "hangs 
on two hinges — the independence and the union 
of the peninsula." And again: "Independence 
cannot be achieved without arms, and to arms, 
therefore, we shall devote our utmost care." 
"The complement of union is confederation be- 
tween the various States of the peninsula;" there- 
fore "we shall attend closely to the concerting, 
with Rome and Tuscany, of the most suitable and 
speedy means of calling a constituent assembly, 
which, besides endowing Italy with civil unity 
(without prejudice to the autonomy of the various 
States of our country and to their rights), shall 
make it easy to use the forces of all for the com- 
mon deliverance." Speaking afterwards of the 
development of institutions, he said that it "is 
founded principally on the accord of the consti- 
tutional monarchy with the democratic spirit." 
And he concluded: "We shall be Democrats; we 
shall occupy ourselves especially with the poor 
and labouring classes, and take effective steps to 
protect and instruct them, to improve their con- 
dition, and to raise them in the social scale, giving 
them the status and dignity of a distinct class in 




VINCENZO GIOBERTI 
From an engraving 



1848: Year of Illusions 127 

the social order." To show that union with 
Lombardy-Venetia had not been destroyed by 
the Austrian occupation, Gioberti had given a 
place in the ministry to a Venetian — Sebastiano 
Ecchio. And a few days later Parliament gave 
fresh proof of its patriotic sentiments by voting 
a monthly subsidy of six hundred thousand lire 
in aid of Venice, which continued to withstand 
the foreigner. 

To get a more solid majority, Gioberti had dis- 
solved the house and directed new elections. They 
were held under the influence of the most advanced 
elements, which managed to exclude some of their 
stoutest opponents from the House — among them 
Cavour. Meantime Gioberti was cherishing in 
his mind a bold but dangerous design. In view 
of the disorders that had commenced in Central 
Italy, he thought Piedmont should intervene to 
re-establish the grand-ducal and papal govern- 
ments. For in this way not only would foreign 
intervention (otherwise inevitable) be avoided, 
but it would be possible afterwards to make use of 
the forces of that part of Italy in the war that must 
be renewed against Austria. This proposal, how- 
ever, did not meet with the approval of Gioberti' s 
colleagues in the ministry, and was opposed by 
Ratazzi in particular. Fearing that in such an 
expedition Piedmont would be taking up an atti- 
tude contrary to popular sentiment, they resisted 
the plan with energy, and Gioberti, who held firmly 
to his opinion, resigned on February 21, 1849. 



128 Cavour 

He alone left the ministry of which he was the 
head. The most conspicuous personality that 
remained in the government was Rattazzi. 

The dominant thought in the minds of all was 
the renewal of the war. The. probabilities of 
victory were slight, for this time Piedmont would 
find herself alone; yet all Liberals felt that she 
must enter the struggle again in order to preserve 
her prestige in the national movement. And with 
the reopening of the war began that period of 
heroic folly which aroused the wonder of the whole 
world and formed the true baptism of blood for 
the Italian spirit of nationality. 



I. 

I 



VIII 



1849 : THE YEAR OF SACRIFICES AND OF MARTYRDOMS 

E lo aspettava la brumal Novara 

e a' tristi errori meta ultima Oporto. . . . 

Sfaceasi; e nel crepuscolo dei sensi 
tra le due vite al re davanti corse 
una miranda vision: di Nizza 
il marinaro 

biondo che dal Gianicolo spronava 
contro I'oltraggio gallico: d'intomo 
splendeagli, fiamma di piropo al sole, 
I'italo sangue. 
Giosufe Carducci (1836-1907): Piemonte^ 

^ Waited for him the wintry dark Novara 
And, the last close of wanderings, sad Oporto! . . . 

There was his passing. In the dusk of conscience, 
Lying between two worlds a wondrous vision 
Lighted the chamber where the King lay dying: 
Nizza's fair sailor. 

From Janus' hill against the outrage striving 
By France inflicted, and around him glowing. 
Ruby-like flashing in the fiery sunlight, 
Italy's heart-blood. 

(Adapted from Maud Holland's translation.) 



129 



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FACSIMILE OF AN AUTOGRAPH LETTER FROM CAVOUR 



CHAPTER VIII 

1849 : THE YEAR OF SACRIFICES AND OF MARTYRDOMS 

The defeat of Novara and Charles Albert's abdication — The Ten 
Days of Brescia — Sicily and Naples — Restoration of the 
Grand Duke to Florence — The Roman Republic: Mazzini 
and Garibaldi — The resistance of Venice: Daniel Manin. 

IN the five months from March 20th, when hos- 
tilities were renewed between Piedmont and 
Austria, to August 24th, when Venice capitulated, 
Italy performed miracles of valour and sacrifice, 
strength and heroism. The one sovereign who had 
remained faithful to the national cause was Charles 
Albert. When the most advanced elements pre- 
vailed, even he became an object of atrocious 
accusations; yet this fact had not induced him to 
change his course. A single desire possessed him 
— to renew the struggle with Austria. Since the 
conduct of the preceding campaign had aroused 
many and just criticisms, he made the sacrifice 
(for him extremely painful) of renoimcing the 
supreme command. It was entrusted to the 
Polish general Czarnowsky, who proved unequal 
to so difficult a situation. The Austrian marshal 
Radetzky determined to invade Piedmont and 
131 



132 Cavour 

give battle, suddenly and decisively, to the 
Piedmontese army, for if he won (as he was con- 
fident of doing) the insiirrections in Lombardy- 
Venetia would soon die down. He crossed the 
Ticino, therefore, and on March 23d faced the 
Piedmontese under the walls of Novara. After 
a fierce conflict, which lasted till late in the evening, 
the Austrians were completely victorious. Time 
after time, that day, Charles Albert flimg himself 
where the peril was greatest, for he wished to fall 
in battle. But it was in vain. Death spared 
him, that he might bear heavier griefs. He begged 
an armistice from the Austrians, but the conditions 
which they imposed seemed to him too severe, and 
believing that his son could obtain better terms 
he decided to abdicate. So that nobody might 
credit him with desire to mix in public affairs 
again, he departed that same night for Portugal. 
Thus the sovereign of Piedmont headed a new roll 
of Italian exiles; not of conspirators now, but of 
men vanquished in open fight for Italian nation- 
ality. He went to Oporto, and there he languished 
for the few remaining months of his life. Broken 
by sorrow, he died on July 28, 1849, aged only 
fifty-one. 

At the reopening of the war Piedmont tried to 
induce Lombardy-Venetia to rise, and several 
towns, such as Como, Bergamo and Brescia, ac- 
tually revolted. But, on learning of the Pied- 
montese disasters, they laid down their arms at 
once — except Brescia, which, misled by false news. 



1 849- Year of Sacrifices 133 

remained a rebel and besieged the Austrian gar- 
rison of the castle. But Brescia itself was soon 
in turn besieged by other Austrian troops, com- 
manded by General Haynau, the fierce warrior 
who boasted of the terror with which his mere name 
inspired the people. He invited the Brescians to 
surrender, by a proclamation that ended with 
these words: "Brescians, you know me; I keep my 
word." But the spirited and valiant population 
of Brescia resisted the Austrian arms for ten days 
— until the whole city had been put to fire and 
sword and filled with corpses. Those ten days of 
blood told the world again that Italy would have 
no more of the Austrian domination. It was 
restored, indeed, in the valley of the Po, but it no 
longer had any other guarantees than rifles and 
the gallows. 

The same could be said of the Bourbon do- 
minion, which Ferdinand II. was then, by force of 
arms, imposing afresh on Sicily. In April Catania 
resisted energetically, but it was sacked and burned 
by the victors. In May the royal troops fought 
hard for three days before they mastered Palermo. 
The island was subjected, but many of its best 
citizens were in exile, and others cherished the 
idea of recovering freedom. 

In Naples the Parliament that reassembled on 
February i, 1849, was definitely dissolved on 
March 13th. Not only was nothing more said 
about constitutional government, but numbers of 
the worthiest citizens who, trusting in the King's 



134 Cavour 

word, had participated in the political life of the 
country, either were arrested as rebels or fled 
abroad. King Ferdinand entertained, in his 
castle at Gaeta, the Pope and the Grand Duke of 
Tuscany, who rejoiced at the Austrian victories 
and saw the hour approaching when their govern- 
ments would be restored. 

In Tuscany the Moderate party, ill-content with 
Guerrazzi's government, and wishing to avoid any 
intervention on the part of the Austrian army, 
provoked an insurrection in Florence, got posses- 
sion of power (April 12, 1849), and invited the 
Grand Duke Leopold to return. Nearly all 
Tuscany acquiesced in this change. Leghorn 
alone remained in the hands of the revolutionaries. 
The Grand Duke sent a general to take possession 
of the government, but at the same time invited 
a corps of Austrian troops to enter Tuscany, and 
thereby aroused general indignation. Yet Leg- 
horn was the only town that offered armed 
opposition to the troops, and its resistance was 
stifled (May nth). But the memory of such a 
restoration alienated the Tuscans from Leopold's 
government. And here too, although the regime 
was milder than at Naples, some Liberals, such 
as Guerrazzi, were thrown into prison, and others 
emigrated. 

At Rome the Constituent Assembly, which met 
on February 5, 1849, proclaimed a republic on the 
morning of the 9th. Pius IX. naturally protested 



i849- Year of Sacrifices 135 

from Gaeta, and following the advice of Cardinal 
Giacomo Antonelli, who was thenceforth his 
mentor, invited the Catholic Powers to restore his 
government. This intervention seemed imminent 
after the disaster of Novara. In view of the 
gravity of the situation, the Roman Assembly- 
decided to entrust executive power to a Trium- 
virate composed of Mazzini, Saffi and Armellini; 
for practical purposes Mazzini was sole dictator. 
This was a solemn moment in the history of 
Italy, and Mazzini realized its importance : 

The Italians had almost lost their veneration for 
Rome; they began to speak of her as a tomb. . . . 
She needed restoring to her high place, so that the 
Italians might accustom themselves again to keep 
guard over her, as over the temple of their common 
nationality. There was need that all should under- 
stand the imperishable vitality which lay buried 
beneath the ruins of two epochs of the world's history. 
Unless help came to us from elsewhere, victory was 
utterly impossible. Doomed to perish, yet looking 
to the future, we had to utter our morituri te salutant 
— to Italy, from Rome. 

Mazzini knew how to communicate his enthu- 
siasm and his faith to all who came in contact with 
him, and the defence of 1849 encircles the name of 
Rome with a new halo of glory. 

The Romans, and the Italian patriots who, 
fugitives from the other States, had hastened to 
Rome in those days, had to defend themselves 



136 Cavour 



first against the armies of another republi 
France. The President of the French Republic 
was Louis Napoleon, who thought to gain the 
sympathies of the Clericals by restoring the govern- 
ment of the Pope. But as the Liberal element was 
strongest in the Constituent Assembly (which 
still carried on its work), he adopted an equivocal 
policy. After the battle of Novara, French 
public opinion became alarmed at the predomin- 
ance of Austria in Italy, and he obtained a vote 
for an expedition into Italy, which he said was 
intended to counterbalance the weight of Austria. 
The expedition set out from the ports of France 
under the command of General Oudinot. By 
ambiguous phrases and protests of friendship this 
leader induced the inhabitants of Civita Vecchia 
to refrain from opposing his disembarkation. On 
April 30th he arrived under the walls of Rome, 
confident of an easy entrance, since he believed 
the reactionary element would open the gates and 
the bands of volunteers be speedily thrown into 
confusion. What he found was a resistance so 
spirited that he was obliged to fall back towards 
Civita Vecchia. The glory of that day's fight 
belongs to Garibaldi, who with his volunteers had 
hurried to the defence of Rome, and who in this, 
his first important battle in Italy, fixed more 
firmly on his brow the laurels that he had already 
won in America. 

In the French Assembly the Liberals naturally 
protested vehemently against the action of the 



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1 849- Year of Sacrifices 137 

government, and on May 7th the Assembly- 
passed an order of the day inviting the govern- 
ment to ensure, without delay, that the expedition 
should make no further digressions from its 
appointed duty. The President, in order to give 
the impression that he was yielding to the Assem- 
bly's wish, and also to gain time in view of the 
approaching elections of the Legislative Assembly, 
sent to Rome, as ambassador, Ferdinand de 
Lesseps, the man who was destined to acquire 
immortal fame by the making of the Suez Canal. 
De Lesseps treated with the Triumvirs, arranged a 
suspension of hostilities, and tried to lay a basis 
for future agreement between the Romans and 
the Pope. 

Meantime the troops of the King of Naples 
also had advanced against Rome; but they suf- 
fered heavy losses in two encounters with Gari- 
baldi (at Palestrina on May 9th and at Velletri 
on May 19th), and Ferdinand II. abruptly re- 
noimced the enterprise and withdrew within the 
borders of his own kingdom. 

Still less trouble was caused by the eight thou- 
sand soldiers whom Spain sent to fight for the Pope, 
Landing at Terracina, they contented themselves 
with the occupation of some districts in which they 
met with no opposition. 

Austria acted with greater vigour. She would 
willingly have undertaken alone the task of com- 
pleting the restoration of papal dominion. After 
occupying the territory of Ferrara, her troops 



138 Cavour 

advanced on Bologna, which for seven days (May 
8th to 15th) offered a magnificent resistance. 
Having taken Bologna, they marched towards 
Ancona, which also refused to siirrender. It was 
besieged by land and sea, until, on July 19th, it 
was compelled to open its gates to the enemy. 

But even before the fall of Ancona the struggle 
was renewed under the walls of Rome. In the 
French elections for the Legislative Assembly the 
reactionary party had carried the day. Louis 
Napoleon, enabled, therefore, to act more openly, 
sent reinforcements to Oudinot, and recalled De 
Lesseps from his mission. On June ist Oudinot 
warned the Roman government that hostilities 
would be renewed. He added that in order to give 
the French residents in Rome an opportunity of 
leaving the city, if they so wished, he would 
abstain from attacking la place {de guerre) before 
Monday, June 4th. Trusting in this promise, 
Giuseppe Roselli of Ancona, who was in charge of 
the defence, neglected to keep careful guard at the 
villas Pamfili and Corsini, strong outposts beyond 
the Porta S. Pancrazio. On the morning of 
Sunday, June 3d, Oudinot seized these positions, 
as though they formed no part of the place. 
Standing high up, they dominate the Porta S. 
Pancrazio, and possess a decisive importance in 
the defence of the city. Garibaldi therefore 
attempted to retake them. All that day the 
struggle was obstinately waged. It remains 
memorable for the fine proofs of individual courage 



1 849- Year of Sacrifices 139 

that Garibaldi's followers gave. Time after time 
they retook the heights; yet they could not hold 
them. Towards evening, when the French fire 
seemed to be slackening, Garibaldi made a last 
attempt. It was headed by Masina and his forty 
lancers, and the disordered but still enthusiastic 
body of volunteers followed. Under a heavy fire 
Masina and his horsemen charged impetuously 
up the slope of the villa Corsini and took it; but 
once again the French reconquered it, and this 
time Masina fell dead. Goffredo Mameli, author 
of the famous hymn Fratelli di Italia, sung on every 
battle-field during the war of independence, was 
seriously wounded that same evening. The young 
soldier-poet was carried to a hospital, where, a 
month later, he breathed his last. 

In spite of the French victory, resistance was 
offered, all through that month of June, around 
the Porta S. Pancrazio and at the neighbouring 
house called // Vascello, of which Garibaldi had 
entrusted the defence to Giacomo Medici. The 
French made entrenchments, planted batteries 
nearer and nearer the walls, and finally, on the 
night of June 21st, opened breaches and seized a 
part of the fortifications. Yet the defence lasted 
still for nine days, during which the storm of shells 
burst furiously upon II Vascello until it was reduced 
to a heap of ruins. The final assault was delivered 
on the night of June 29th, and again heroic deeds 
were done. Among the slain must especially be 
mentioned Luciano Manara, the valiant leader of 



140 Cavour 

the Lombard sharpshooters. Towards noon on 
July 1st a truce was arranged in order to bring 
in the dead and wounded. By this time the 
struggle was over, but the Triumvirs, in their 
proclamation of that day to the Romans, could 
with justice assert: "You have baptized with 
glory, and hallowed with your blood, the new life 
that is opening for Italy — the life of the people, 
which must and shall be." The Assembly re- 
solved to cease from a defence that had become 
hopeless. But it made no peace ; it simply desisted 
from the struggle, though it continued to hold its 
sittings. 

Garibaldi, who in the midst of the Assembly had 
proposed to leave Rome and continue the war in 
the country, decided to carry out this project on 
his own account. "I offer neither pay, nor 
quarters, nor provisions," he said to whomsoever 
was willing to follow him; "I offer hunger, thirst, 
forced marches, battles and death." Yet on the 
evening of July 2d fuUy four thousand armed men 
went out from Rome under Garibaldi's leadership 
to carry on the war ; and with them went Garibaldi's 
courageous wife, Anita, who, although in delicate 
health, wished to share his perils. 

Next day (July 3d) the French entered Rome 
and re-established the government of the Pope. 
But by her wonderfiil resistance Rome had ac- 
quired fresh titles to glory and to the reverence of 
the Italian nation, of whose new aspirations she 
was now able to become the centre. 



1 849- Year of Sacrifices 141 

Garibaldi wished to repeat his American exploits, 
but, followed by the French and Spanish in Latium, 
and threatened by the Austrians in Tuscany and 
the Marches, he was constrained to enter the 
territory of the Republic of S. Marino, where he 
disbanded his Httle army. Nevertheless on the 
night of Jiily 31st, with three hundred of his most 
devoted and ardent comrades, he evaded the 
Austrians, who were blockading the territory of 
the little republic, and set out for Cesenatico, 
intending to embark in the hope of reaching Venice 
and sharing in the defence of that city, which 
still held out against the Austrian arms. But 
the Austrian fleet sighted Garibaldi's vessels and 
started in pursuit. Eight were captured; five 
managed to come to land near Comacchio at the 
mouths of the Po. Garibaldi was on board one 
of the five. He went ashore with his beloved wife 
Anita in his arms. She was scarcely alive, and 
on the following day she died in a lonely hut in 
the neighbourhood. Garibaldi saw the impossi- 
bility of reaching Venice. He fled from place to 
place, pursued by the Austrians but sheltered 
by many a warm-hearted patriot; passing into 
Tuscany, at last, after thirty-seven days of 
wandering, he reached the Gulf of Follonica 
(called also the Gulf of Piombino), and there 
embarked for Liguria. 

The last resistance in the sacred name of Italy 
and nationality was offered by Venice and directed 



142 Cavour 

by Daniel Manin, the one real statesman who had 
appeared amid the events of 1848. The city of 
Venice lies in a very unusual situation. It is 
built on many islets in the centre of a great lagoon, 
and is joined to the mainland only by the monu- 
mental railway bridge (see p. 76), more than three 
and a half kilometres in length. The difficulty 
of besieging it is therefore plain. Having already 
reconquered the rest of the Venetian territory, as 
well as Lombardy, the Austrians blockaded Venice 
in the summer of 1848. But the city held out for 
a whole year, giving sublime proofs of heroism and 
noble daring. 

After the battle of Novara, Venice could hope 
no longer for help from without. Nevertheless 
the Assembly of representatives, meeting in the 
Hall of the Great Coimcil on April 2, 1849, decreed 
unanimously: "Venice shall resist the Austrians 
at all costs." And to that end it invested the 
President, Manin, with full powers. The Austri- 
ans concentrated a strong force at Mestre, and 
prepared to attack Malghera Fort, on the shore 
of the lagoon. The fort suffered a terrible bom- 
bardment on May 4th, and next day the Marshal 
Radetzky sent an invitation to surrender. But 
Venice refused. The assault was therefore re- 
sumed. At the end of twenty days Malghera 
was little more than a mass of ruins. Even the 
few buildings that were still standing threatened 
to collapse. On the night of May 26th the fort 
was abandoned and its defenders withdrew across 



1849* Year of Sacrifices 143 

the long bridge that unites the city and the main- 
land. Some of the arches were then destroyed, 
to hinder the Austrian advance, and the defence 
of the bridge was organized. While a determined 
resistance was being maintained, secret agreements 
were made with the insurgents of Hungary. But 
the situation became daily more hopeless, for 
provisions were running short, and the Austrians, 
from the shore of the lagoon, managed to reach 
the city with their shell-fire. The inhabitants 
were forced to abandon the wards that were most 
exposed to bombardment, and the consequent 
crowding in other quarters, and the bad quality 
of their provisions, led soon to an outbreak of dis- 
ease. Yet the people hoped still, for they looked for 
the speedy arrival of Garibaldi; but the watch- 
fulness of the Austrian fleet prevented his coming. 
The success of the Hungarians was trusted in; 
but, instead, Russia joined Austria against them 
and that rebellion was stifled. At last negotia- 
tions for capitulation were opened, and on August 
22, 1849, the treaty was signed. Daniel Manin 
and many another patriot had to go into exile. 

Italy seemed to be reverting to her former 
condition, as though nothing had happened. But 
two profound and decisive changes had come about 
in the nation. It was by force of arms alone that 
Austrian domination and the governments of 
Naples, Rome, Florence, Modena and Parma were 
now maintained. And a body of emigrants, 
comprising the most illustrious men of all those 



144 Cavour 

regions, testified to the world the hatefulness of 
the restorations. In one state only — Piedmont 
— still flew that symbol of revolution, the 
tricoloured Italian banner. 



IX 



the policy of concentration in piedmont 
(d'azeglio-cavour ministry) 

Pace, o defunti, ed aspettate. II giglio 

Dissipate dal nembo or si ripianta, 

E, di fieri battesimi vermiglio, 
Crescera in quercia gloriosa e santa. 

Sara I'ltalia il suo scoglio natio. 

Gran cose il tempo e la fortuna ammanta. 
Soffia suir essa I'alito di Dio. 

Giovanni Prati (1815-1884): Opere, vol. v.' 

' Peace, ye dead, have patience! The lily uprooted by the storm takes 
root again, and, red with cruel baptisms, shall grow into an oak, glorious and 
hallowed. Italy shall be its native soil. Time and fortune throw a mantle 
over much. The breath of God blows on her. 



145 



CHAPTER IX 

the policy of concentration in piedmont 
(d'azeglio-cavour ministry) 

The youth of Victor Emmanuel II. — Gloomy opening of the reign 
— Massimo D'Azeglio as Prime Minister — The peace with 
Austria, and the proclamation of Moncalieri — The Siccardi 
laws, and Cavour's first success as an orator — Exasperation 
and violence of the Clerical party — Cavour as Minister of 
Agriculture and Commerce — His predominance in the 
Ministry — Cavour as Minister of Finance — The Re Galantu- 
omo — Gioberti's Civil Regeneration of Italy — The connuhio 
of Cavour with Rattazzi — Cavour's exit from the D'Azeglio 
Ministry — He becomes Prime Minister. 

FEW sovereigns have ascended the throne amid 
circumstances more gloomy than those which 
accompanied the opening of Victor Emmanuel's 
reign. He received the crown that his father had 
abandoned on the bloody field of Novara, and of 
necessity his first act as King was the accepting of 
the conditions imposed by the conqueror. And 
around him, he felt, was a people who viewed him 
with profound distrust. 

He was then in the full flower of early manhood, 

for he had only just completed his twenty-ninth 

year. He was born at Turin in the Carignano 

palace (destined to be the seat of Parliament) on 

147 



148 Cavour 

March 14, 1820 — the year of the first movements 
of the Italian Revival, when his father, excited 
by Carbonari friends, was already dreaming of a 
glorious future for himself and for Italy. But 
the hiirricane of 1821 swept the weak Charles 
Albert into a series of mistakes. Constrained to 
leave Turin, he took refuge, together with his 
family, near the Court of his father-in-law, the 
Grand Diike of Tuscany. At Florence, one even- 
ing in September, 1822, the little Victor Emmanuel 
narrowly escaped death through the curtains of 
his cot taking fire. He lay asleep in the cot, and 
the only other person in the room was his nurse. 
With admirable devotion she rushed into the 
flames and rescued the infant prince. He was 
unharmed except for slight bums, but the nurse 
died a few days later, the victim of her self-devo- 
tion in the cause of duty. Victor Emmanuel was 
eleven years old when his father reached the throne. 
He early conceived a passion for military exercises 
and the chase. Jovial, frank, and of easy socia- 
bility, he loved to associate with soldiers, and to 
converse with country folk, better than to engage 
in the dull receptions and the tiresome observances 
of the Court. Even after his marriage, in 1842, 
with his cousin Maria Adelaide (daughter of the 
Archduke Rainer of Austria and of a sister of 
Charles Albert), he retained the habits of his 
bachelor days, and, although sincerely attached 
to his charming and virtuous wife, often abandoned 
himself to low amours. Charles Albert did not 



Policy of Concentration in Piedmont 149 

allow his sons the least share in affairs of State; 
but the outbreak of the war of 1848 at last gave 
the young prince an opportunity to prove himself 
a worthy heir of the traditions of valour that 
attached to his house. It is easy, therefore, to 
imagine how keenly he felt the humiliation of the 
conquered. 

But Victor Emmanuel had not inherited his 
father's indecision. From the first day of his 
reign he saw his object clear before him and 
marched straight towards it. Impelled by ne- 
cessity, he signed the hard terms of armistice 
which Radetzky imposed, allowing the Austrians 
to make a temporary occupation of a stretch of 
Piedmontese territory; but he would not let the 
Austrian marshal persuade him to re-establish 
absolute government in Piedmont. Animated by 
a noble sentiment of filial devotion, and guided by 
an exact perception of what the moment de- 
manded, he resolved to preserve the Liberal in- 
stitutions conferred b}?" his father, and to hold 
high and firm that tricoloured banner which 
represented the agreement of the House of Savoy 
with the principles of the revolution. 

Nevertheless this resolve, though well rooted 
in his mind, seemed to be unrecognized by the 
coimtry, which, in grief at its disasters, gave 
itself up to idle imprecations. The young sove- 
reign was misunderstood by his subjects. They 
judged him to be a swashbuckler of absolutist 
tendencies, who would certainly seize the first 



150 Cavour 

favourable opportunity to abolish the Constitution. 
Amid that triumph of the Radical party which 
occurred almost throughout Italy in March, 1849, 
these ideas found favour, even in Piedmont ; and 
in such circumstances many of those Radicals 
who had been hostile to Charles Albert now began 
to exalt him, declaring that with h;s abdication 
the national cause had been abandoned by all the 
sovereigns. Parliament itself became an inter- 
preter of the general opinion; for when the new 
King came to take the oath of fidelity to the 
Constitution (March 29, 1849), it received him 
with a frigid silence that was eloquent of distrust. 
That same day a republican insurrection broke 
out at Genoa, and for several days the rebels were 
masters of the city. 

Yet, as Massimo D'Azeglio justly remarked, 
adversity is a school which prostrates and unnerves 
the craven, but stimulates and braces the strong. 
Victor Emmanuel was strong, and the sorrows of 
those days had indeed a bracing influence upon 
him. At that very difficult juncture he had the 
good fortune and the discernment to choose, for 
the head of the ministry, a man whose very name 
was a sure guarantee of loyalty and patriotism — 
Massimo D'Azeglio (bom in 1798). 

D'Azeglio is one of the most attractive figures 
among the men who made Italy, a true example 
of chivalry without fear and without reproach. 
The descendant of a long and noble line of valiant 
warriors and illustrious citizens, he maintained 




o „ 



£ 6 



Policy of Concentration in Piedmont 151 

the high traditions of his family, and added lustre 
to them by intellectual achievement and spotless 
purity of character. From his youth up he had 
shown that the thoughtless, idle life of the wealthy 
was not for him. A lover of art, he studied paint- 
ing, and in order to devote himself seriously to it 
he left the comforts of his home, heedless of the 
derision and reproaches of relatives and friends. 
He lived for a long time at Florence and Rome, 
supporting himself by the sale of his pictures. 
Like all the noble-hearted and high-minded men 
of his generation, he was filled with a growing 
desire to see his country free and great. In the 
pursuit of his art he expressed this aspiration by 
choosing subjects which would call to mind some 
of the famous men and glorious episodes of Italy's 
past. The same purpose moved him to take up 
the pen, and to introduce fine pages of Italian 
history into his novels — such as the heroic resist- 
ance of Florence in 1530, or the challenging of 
thirteen Frenchmen by thirteen Italians at B ar- 
ietta in 1503. By nature disinclined towards 
conspiracy, he made no secret of his Liberal senti- 
ments. When the war broke out, he took the 
field as a volunteer, and he was seriously woimded 
in the defence of Vicenza. Now, though with great 
reluctance, he accepted from Victor Emmanuel 
the position of first minister (May, 1849). 

The first and gravest question was that of the 
relations with Austria. By this time, the renewal 
of the war seemed impossible in view of the con- 



152 Cavour 

ditions of Italy. Hence it was necessary to 
convert the armistice into a treaty of peace. The 
negotiations were long and difficult. Piedmont 
desired to secure an amnesty for the citizens of 
Lombardy-Venetia who had shown themselves to 
be rebels against Austria; but Austria replied 
that this concerned the Emperor alone and was 
not a matter for treaty with Piedmont, though, 
in consequence of the insistence of the Piedmontese 
representatives, the Austrian government promised 
that the amnesty should be promulgated before 
the ratification of the treaty of peace. The 
treaty was signed at Milan on August 6, 1849, 
and by it Piedmont was bound to pay a war 
indemnity of seventy-five million francs. 

With the opening of the new reign the Chamber 
had been dissolved, and on July 15, 1849, a general 
election took place in Piedmont for the third time. ^ 
The most advanced elements were uppermost 
again — to such a degree that the new Chamber 
elected as its President Lorenzo Pareto, who had 
been Charles Albert's minister, but had afterwards 
taken part in the revolution of Genoa. He had 
even been numbered among the twelve citizens 
who were to be excluded from the amnesty, and 
he owed his pardon solely to the personal inter- 
vention of Victor Emmanuel, who was unwilling 
to punish one of his father's ministers. The 

' Camillo di Cavour entered the Chamber again at this election. 
From that time to his death he was, without a break, deputy of 
the first constituency of Turin. 



Policy of Concentration in Piedmont 153 

hostility of the Chamber towards the Government, 
indicated by Pareto's election as President, dis- 
closed itself more openly afterwards when the 
treaty of peace was discussed. In vain Cesare 
Balbo proposed "that the treaty of peace should 
be voted without any discussion and with the 
protest of silence." After a long debate, the 
majority of the Chamber approved, instead, a 
proposal to suspend the discussion of the treaty 
until a law had been passed defining the civic 
rights of the exiles from Lombardy-Venetia. This 
delay involved serious difficulties; it might even 
have led to a new war, and the ministry was 
unwilling to assume such a responsibility. On 
November 17th the Chamber was dissolved, and 
Massimo D'Azeglio advised the King in simimon- 
ing another to appeal directly to the country, 
invoking the support of public opinion for the 
policy of the Government, and appealing to the 
judgment and affection of his people. The pro- 
clamation of Moncalieri, named after the place 
in which the King signed it, was certainly a step 
of great importance; for the ministry thereby 
drew the Crown into the arena of party strife, 
and put it in opposition to the Chamber. But it 
had a wholesome effect on the country, which 
returned a considerable majority of ministerial 
deputies; and on January 9, 1850, the treaty of 
peace with Austria was approved almost without 
discussion. 



154 Cavour 

Scarcely was this grave question settled, and 
the opposition of the Radicals overcome, when the 
Clerical danger rose into prominence. A reaction- 
ary spirit was gaining ground at that time not 
only in Italy but throughout Europe. Every- 
where the Clerical party, re-emboldened, fought 
Liberal institutions with fierceness. The Pied- 
montese government proclaimed its Liberal tend- 
ency at once by presenting, through Siccardi, the 
Minister of Justice, a Bill to abolish the privilege 
(enjoyed by the ecclesiastics) of a special tribimal ; 
to annul the right of asylum in churches and other 
sacred places ; and to limit the number of obligatory 
festivals. It was the first step towards a complete 
restoration, to the State, of its rights of sovereignty. 
But, precisely because this scheme indicated the 
road along which the Government desired to move, 
it was resisted with extreme violence by the reac- 
tionary party, and, in the Chamber itself, found 
some opponents even among the members of the 
Right, who up to that time had supported the 
ministry. In that memorable debate, which lasted 
from the 5th to the 12th of March, 1850, Cavour 
spoke with marked effect in favour of the proposed 
laws. It was of urgent importance, he said, that 
the Crown's advisers shoiild take steps to establish, 
on a sure basis, the political principle which they 
intended to defend; no other reform was better 
adapted to such an end. "So far from weakening 
authority, reforms that are carried out in good 
time strengthen it. So far from increasing the 



Policy of Concentration in Piedmont 155 

force of the revolutionary spirit, they reduce it 
to impotence." And tiuning to the minis- 
ters, he cited, in conclusion, the example of 
England : 

Imitate freely the example of the Duke of Welling- 
ton, Lord Grey, and Sir Robert Peel, whom history 
will proclaim the foremost statesmen of our time. 
Advance far along the path of reforms, and fear not 
that they may be declared inopportune. Do not be 
afraid of diminishing the power of the constitutional 
monarchy which is entrusted to your hands, for, 
instead, you will increase it. By this measure you 
will enable that sovereignty to root itself so firmly 
in our country, that even if the tempest of revolution 
rages around us once more, it will be able not only to 
resist that tempest but also, gathering around itself 
all the living forces of Italy, to lead our nation on to 
the fulfilment of her high destinies. 

These words, which expressed the fundamental 
concept of his policy, were received with warm 
and prolonged applause by the Chamber and by 
the gallery. It was Cavour's first great success 
in pubHc speaking. 

Opposition to the measure was even more 
spirited in the Senate than in the Chamber, but 
at length, on April 8, 1850, the Senate also 
approved it. An attempt was made to prevent 
the royal sanction, by indirectly influencing Victor 
Emmanuel's mind. But the King stood firm and 
sanctioned the laws. Forthwith the Clerical party 



156 Cavour 

broke out into the greatest violences. The Papal 
Curia recalled the nuncio from Turin. The 
Archbishops of Turin and Cagliari invited their 
clergy to refuse obedience to the new laws. When 
proceedings were instituted against them, the 
irritation of the irreconcilable clergy passed all 
bounds. Just at that time Count Pietro di Santa- 
rosa (Minister of Agriculture, Industry, and 
Commerce) fell mortally ill. A devout Catholic, 
he asked for the sacraments of the Church, but 
the clergy insisted that he must first express 
penitence for concurring in the Siccardi laws, and 
retract his participation in them. It was a painful 
scene, in which the dying man was torn between 
fervent religious faith and the sense of duty and 
honour. Santarosa declined to subscribe the 
retractation put before him, and the priests inex- 
orably refused him the last sacraments, though 
the abbe Ghiringhello, an intimate friend, con- 
fessed him. The news of such cruelty aroused a 
lively agitation against the clergy in Turin. 
Tumults arose on the occasion of Santarosa 's 
funeral. They were directed especially against 
the Archbishop, since it was in obedience to his 
orders that the clergy had acted. At length the 
Court of Appeal condemned him to exile, and a 
little later the same sentence was passed upon the 
Archbishop of Cagliari, who also had violently 
opposed the new laws. A monument was after- 
wards erected in Turin, by public subscription, 
to commemorate the victory over the Clerical 



Policy of Concentration in Piedmont 157 

faction which had been won by means of the 
Siccardi laws. 

It was precisely these discussions which deter- 
mined the attitudes of the parties in the Chamber 
and in the country. The extreme Right had 
declared its opposition to the Bill, and in general 
showed little inclination towards a reform policy. 
Accordingly a group of deputies, headed by Cavour, 
now detached themselves from these old comrades ; 
in fact, Cavour soon asserted that still bolder 
reforms were necessary. In a weighty address, 
delivered on July 2, 1850, he examined the attacks 
by the Left upon the government, and explained 
the extenuating circumstances which entitled the 
ministry to indulgence. But he added that 
although, so far as concerned the past, he was 
disposed to agree to a Bill of indemnity, yet in 
the future he and many of his political friends 
would no longer be able to support the ministry 
unless it showed greater zeal and took more 
courageous resolutions — unless, in short, its work 
became more energetic and more reformative. 
This attitude natiu-ally gave the ministerial 
majority the impression that Cavour was ambitious 
and undisciplined, and the opinion was formed in 
the political world of Turin that, in order to secure 
his support, it was necessary to invite him to join 
the ministry. 

On the death of Santarosa (August 5, 1850), 
therefore, Cavour was at once named by many 
people as the inevitable successor. But Massimo 



158 Cavour 

D'Azeglio delayed the appointment. When Gen- 
eral Alfonso La Marmora, Minister of War and a 
faithful friend of Cavour, impressed upon him 
the necessity of quickly filling the vacancy, and 
hinted at Cavour, D'Azeglio showed reluctance. 
"In one month," he said, "this man will turn the 
whole ministry upside-down, and I don't want 
trouble." "Camillo," insisted La Marmora, "is 
a devil of a fine fellow, and among us he will calm 
down." D'Azeglio was induced to approach 
Cavour, and Cavour thereupon demanded that 
the Minister of Education, whom he thought too 
weak, should be supplanted. "It 's a bad begin- 
ning with your fine fellow, my dear Alfonso," was 
D'Azeglio's comment to La Marmora; but he 
consented to Cavour's demand in the end, and 
recommended the King to appoint him Minister 
of Agriculture and Commerce. Victor Emmanuel 
was an unusually good judge of men, and he 
remarked to the ministers who laid this proposal 
before him: "Can't you gentlemen see that this 
man will kick you all out!" Anyhow, although 
Cavour was none too welcome to him, his Majesty 
made the appointment (October 11, 1850). 

On assuming power, Cavour put aside his other 
interests (even retiring from the editorship of II 
Risorgimento), and devoted his whole self to his 
new ofiice.' The problems of agriculture and 

' That same year (1850), on June 15th, his father died. He 
had lost his mother in ApriL 1846. Camillo never married. He 




A. LA MARMORA 
From a contemporary print, 1859 



Policy of Concentration in Piedmont 159 

commerce were already those which had most 
exercised his mind. He had, therefore, ideas of 
his own with regard to them — and decidedly firm 
convictions. He was an enthusiastic supporter 
of the principle of Free Trade, and he believed 
that if Piedmont adopted it she would share largely 
in the industrial development that was then taking 
place over a great part of Europe. But he under- 
stood the difficulty of gaining Parliament's consent 
to a general reform of such importance, since the 
representatives of the various interests that would 
suffer by it would naturally form a coalition in 
order to fight it. So he tried to reach the same 
reform by an indirect way. He concluded com- 
mercial treaties with the separate Powers, on the 
basis of very low tariffs, and, as each of these 
treaties conferred some advantages on one or 
another branch of production, he thereby divided 
his opponents and easily obtained approval for 
his projects. Moreover, these treaties were of 
use to Piedmont in her international relations; 
for Cavour, with subtle skill, offered them to the 



continued to live with his brother Gustavo (ti864), who had 
remained a widower since 1833, after having three children. 
Of these the eldest, Au gusto, to whom Camillo was deeply 
attached, fell, a sub-lieutenant of 19, in the battle of Goito, May 
30, 1848. His other son, Ainardo, who entered the diplomatic 
career, survived his uncle, but died when still a young man (1875) 
without leaving offspring. Hence the Cavours remained re- 
presented in the female line only — by the Marquis Gustavo's 
daughter Giuseppina (1831-1888), who was married to the 
Marquis Alfieri di Sostegno. 



i6o Cavour 

several States as benevolent concessions. In this 
way, he completed, within a few months, one of 
the most far-reaching of customs reforms, and 
started Piedmont along the road to commercial 
freedom. 

During the discussions which centred aroimd these 
projects, Cavour found opportunities of expounding 
many of his political views. Here, for example, are 
some sentences from a speech of April 14, 1 851, in 
which he sums up very well the tendency of the time : 

Modem history, especially that of the last century, 
makes it^clear that society is impelled inevitably along 
the path of progress. In the sphere of politics it tends 
so to modify existing institutions as to call an ever 
greater number of citizens to participation in political 
power. In economics it aims evidently at the im- 
provement of the condition of the lower classes, and 
at a fairer division of the produce of land and capital. 

Hitherto, the office of the Minister of Agriculture 
and Commerce had been considered a second-rate 
post. With Cavour it assumed an absolute pre- 
eminence over the others — ^perhaps because of the 
many bold schemes of reform with which Cavour 
kept the Chamber occupied ; perhaps, too, because 
the new minister was courageous enough to speak 
also on subjects pertaining to other departments of 
government, and always set forth his personal views 
with great frankness. Sometimes, even without au- 
thority, he spoke directly in the name of the minis- 



Policy of Concentration in Piedmont i6i 

try, as though he were already its head; and 
D'AzegHo, who was not in very good health and 
loved a quiet life, refrained from protesting. In 
one of these discussions, Cavour proudly asserted 
that Piedmont had assumed a high place: 

Though we are a small people in strength and in 
our material resources, I believe that we are at this 
moment great in the sense that we represent (perhaps 
of all peoples most faithfully) the idea of progress 
and reasonable liberty — an idea that is destined to 
spread throughout all Europe. 

Imbued with so lofty a patriotic sentiment, 
Cavour was unable to tolerate the weak financial 
poUcy of his colleague Nigra. By threats of 
resignation he forced Nigra to leave office, and 
then himself agreed to act also as Minister of 
Finance (April, 1851). The cost of the war of 
1848-9, the indemnity paid to Austria, the im- 
provements introduced into the public services, 
the construction of railways, the schools, the new 
needs created by the new order of things — all this 
mass of circumstances had involved an enormous 
increase of expenditure at a time wl on a succession 
of bad harvests was reducing the incomes of the 
citizens. Nevertheless, Piedmoni's first need was 
that the revenue of the State should be made to 
balance expenditure in order to acquire credit. 
It was necessary, therefore, to impose fresh sacri- 
fices upon the country, and Cavour, confident 



I 62 Cavour 

of Piedmont's future, undertook this distasteful 
task without hesitation. 



Thus by the work of D'Azeglio and Cavour, 
Victor Emmanuel's regime not merely overcame 
the popular mistrust that had shown itself at the 
opening of the new reign, but daily acquired a 
greater ascendency in the country, which recog- 
nized with satisfaction that it had a strong govern- 
ment, carrying out a clear and constant policy. 
D'Azeglio made rectitude a rule of his government. 
In a speech to the Chamber, he declared that 
among the rights of the people there was one which 
nobody had ever spoken about but which he 
desired to point out — the right to a good example ; 
the right to see themselves governed with sincerity 
and justice. With him, in fact, originated the 
sobriquet Re Galantuomo given to Victor Emman- 
uel. He had entirely gained the sympathy of 
the King, who was happy to be able, now and 
then, to pass the time pleasantly with so amiable 
and vivacious a Prime Minister. "There have 
been so few honourable kings in history," remarked 
D'Azeglio to him one day, "that it would be a fine 
thing to begin the series." "Have I the making 
of a Re Galantuomo?'' Victor Emmanuel asked. 
"Your Majesty has sworn loyalty to the Consti- 
tution, and has thought of Italy, not merely of 
Piedmont. Let us preserve, as the basis of our 
actions, the principle that in this world a king, 



Policy of Concentration in Piedmont 163 

just as much as the man in the street, should say 
what he means and keep to it." "It seems to me 
an easy task," said his Majesty. "Then we have 
the Re Galanhiomo," observed D'Azeglio. The 
phrase got abroad; it caught the popular favour 
and served to strengthen the affectionate confidence 
which by this time was springing up between 
people and sovereign. 

Precisely at that time, Vincenzo Gioberti, the 
great thinker, who after the events of 1849 had 
taken refuge in Paris, published his book on The 
Civil Regeneration of Italy. In this work, Gioberti, 
after pointing out the mistakes of the Italians in 
1848-9, renounced the dream that he had set 
forth in // Primate, and argued that to ensure 
her tranquillity Italy must rid herself of the 
temporal power of the Papacy and create a new 
Rome, 



greater and more magnificent than the Romes of the 
past, since it will be the sum and harmony of them 
all; born in Latium with the kingship, become Italian 
and Ultramontane with the republic and with the em- 
pire, Christian with the Gospel, cosmopolitan with the 
Papacy, it will be at once the spiritual and the tem- 
poral home of principles that progress will strengthen 
and futurity perpetuate. 

And it belonged to Piedmont, he said, to assume 
the direction of the national movement — by 
reason of the old merit that she had won in a 



1 64 Cavour 

patriotic war, courageously sustained through two 
campaigns, and of the new merit acquired by the 
sheltering of Italian fugitives, and by the Liberal 
policy which preserved the Constitution and 
showed signs of a desire to advance. Gioberti's 
Civil Regeneration was perhaps the only book that 
Victor Emmanuel read completely through. It 
helped materially to fortify the resolves which led 
him afterwards to fulfil the destinies of Italy 
at her capital, Rome. But for the present it 
was necessary to move with great prudence, 
for in all the rest of Europe reaction was 
triumphant. 



The famous coup d'etat of December 2, 1851, 
which made Louis Napoleon absolute master of 
the government of France, encouraged the reac- 
tionaries of every country to assert themselves 
more boldly. Even in Piedmont, that section of 
the Right which had already become perturbed 
by the Liberalism of the government, wished to 
profit by the occasion and drag the country along 
the path of reaction. Cavour was alarmed. 
During the revolutionary period he had fought 
the Democratic party, for it seemed the strongest 
and most dangerous. But now that arrogant 
reaction was coming uppermost, he stood for the 
defence of liberty. Yet, in so doing, he was only 
following his firmest convictions. The danger 
was now on the Right, and it was well indic9-ted 



Policy of Concentration in Piedmont 165 

by Cavour in a speech that he later on addressed 
to the Chamber: 



When the wind blows in a certain direction it is 
highly dangerous to set out that way. It is dangerous 
to go down the slope towards which events are hur- 
rying. The honourable deputy Menabrea, who is 
my master in mechanics,^ knows that the motion of a 
falling body increases in a ratio of the square of the 
distance, and he is also not unaware that though the 
movement towards reaction may at first be very slow, 
it becomes swift with the lapse of time, and carries 
men far with a force too great to be resisted even by 
those who had meant to take only some scarcely 
perceptible steps in that direction. 

Profoundly convinced that a reactionary policy 
would involve Piedmont in irreparable ruin, he 
decided to detach himself entirely from the most 
retrograde section of the Right, which likewise 
felt little enthusiasm for the Italian tendencies 
of the Piedmontese government, and to approach 
instead that group of Democrats who, under 
Urbano Rattazzi's leadership, had been dissociating 
themselves from the most inflammatory elements 
of the Left in order to pursue a more temperate 
course. Like Cavour, they also wished to develop 
the Liberal institutions of Piedmont, and to 
proclaim with ever-increasing distinctness her 

' The Count Menabrea, a deputy attached to the extreme 
Right, was a colonel of engineers. 



1 66 Cavour 

Italian mission, so that they were separated from 
Cavour merely by a question of tactics and 
method, whereas between him and the extreme 
Right there was a fundamental difference which 
events were still further to emphasize. 

Cavour thought that by agreement between 
the two Centres, a strong majority might be formed, 
capable of resisting the two extreme sections of 
the Chamber, and of carrying out the great ideas 
that he cherished. But he did not believe that 
his ministerial colleagues would dare to face the 
situation and negotiate an understanding with 
the Left Centre. He therefore conferred in secret 
with Rattazzi, hoping that D'Azeglio and the 
other ministers would bow to accomplished facts. 
The agreement began to show itself in the debates 
of the Chamber during February, 1852. It led 
the deputy Di Revel (of the extreme Right) to 
say that Cavour had simultaneously divorced 
himself from one section of the Chamber and 
contracted a marriage {connubio) with the other; 
and this parliamentary episode was henceforward 
known as the connubio. On that occasion, 
Cavour declared that the ministry had made no 
change of policy: 

It still stands on the ground on which it has based 
its policy — the ground of liberty, prudence, modera- 
tion, and judicious progress. If some honourable 
members of this Chamber have met it on that ground, 
it has stretched out its hand to them, and it will be 



Policy of Concentration in Piedmont 167 

happy to form a genuine alliance with them ; but this 
will never be done at the expense of the principles 
of which it has made itself the interpreter for nearly 
three years. It is not true, as the deputy Menabrea 
said, that the ministry has turned its prow towards 
a new shore. It has made no manoeuvre of the kind; 
but it wished to go forward, not back. 



At first the connubio excited no very great 
opposition on the part of D'Azeglio, who himself 
was alive to the dangers of reaction; but he and 
the other ministers were chagrined by the un- 
ceremonious fashion in which Cavour treated 
them. In May of that year, when Cavour, 
without the consent of his colleagues, supported 
the nomination of Rattazzi as President of the 
Chamber, the discord within the ministry resulted 
in a crisis. 

The King entrusted Massimo D'Azeglio with 
the formation of a new ministry, and in the re- 
construction Cavour and his friend Farini were 
excluded. But the new ministry was not strong 
enough to stand for long. In October of the same 
year, D'Azeglio himself advised the King to call 
the Count di Cavour to the head of the govern- 
ment. Thus was constituted, on November 
4, 1852, that ministry which, based precisely 
on the connubio, was able during its long ex- 
istence to carry out the great Italian policy of 
Piedmont. 

Massimo D'Azeglio had the artist's tempera- 



1 68 Cavour 

merit. He treated politics sometimes with the 
indolence of the dilettante, never with the passion- 
ate impetuosity of Camillo Cavour. When he 
ceded power to his "inhuman rival" (they face- 
tiously addressed each other so), D'Azeglio wrote 
to a friend : " I leave my guardianship to another — 
to a man of diabolic activity, powerful in body 
and mind; to him it is something of a pleasure." 
Cavour, in fact, loved power — though not for the 
small satisfactions that pertain to it, but because 
it alone could enable him to carry out the designs 
that filled his mind. He was convinced that 
Piedmont contained the elements of the future 
regeneration of Italy; vigorous of intellect and 
consciously ambitious, he felt that he was able 
to lead his country on the path towards her noble 
destinies. Gioberti had formed the same estimate 
of him, for in his Civil Regeneration of Italy he had 
written of Cavour: 

That spirit, that vigour, that activity carry me 
away; and I admire even the magnanimous mistake 
of treating a province as though it were the nation, if 
I compare it with the futility of those who regard the 
nation as a province. Hence I consider him to be one 
of the men best fitted, by his breadth of mind, to 
co-operate with the Prince in the work of which I 
speak. 

With Cavour's premiership, therefore, a new 
phase, bolder and more vigorous, began in Pied- 




CAMILLO CAVOUR 
From*a contemporary prim 



1859 



Policy of Concentration in Piedmont 169 

montese politics. His mathematical mind had 
calculated all the difficulties of the problem; and, 
full of strength, vitality, ambition and intellectual 
force, he set himself with energy to solve it. 



REACTION IN THE OTHER STATES OF ITALY, AND 
MAZZINI'S PROPAGANDA 

Salite alle rocche, spandetevi al piano, 

Dal Garda all' Isonzo, dall' Adda al Verbano; 

Nei dolci presidii tomate a regnar. 

Ma, lungo i confini, nel cor delle ville, 
Potrete poi sempre le fulve pupille, 
Neir ora del sonno, securi chinar? 

Badate; un iroso nasconde ogni tetto, 

Da ogni angolo arcano balena un moschetto, 

Compressi gli sdegni, ma spenti non son. 

La squilla lombarda v' ha messo una volta 
Nel cor lo spavento. Ne tutta e sepolta 
La stirpe, che ha desto quel lugubre suon. 

Giovanni Prati (1815-1884): Opere, vol. v.* 

^ Go up to the forts, pour yourselves over the plain, from the Garda to the 
Isonzo, from the Adda to the Verbano. In the pleasant cities return to rule. 
But along the borders, in the heart of the country, will you ever again be 
able safely to let your gleaming eyes close in slumber? Beware; every roof 
shelters a wrathful man, a musket gleams from every secret corner. Anger 
has been repressed, but it is not spent. Once the Lombard trumpet-call 
struck fear into your hearts; nor is the race all passed away which woke that 
fateful sound. 



171 



CHAPTER X 

REACTION IN THE OTHER STATES OF ITALY, AND 
MAZZINI'S PROPAGANDA 

The Neapolitan trials and Gladstone's letters — The Papacy as 
the centre of the reaction: Cardinal Antonelli — Brigandage 
in the States of the Church — Restoration of the Grand Duke 
in Tuscany — Condition of Modena — Villainies of Charles 
III. of Parma; his assassination — Hostility of Lombardy- 
Venetia to the foreign domination; the Mazzinist conspira- 
cies — The Mantuan trials and the Milanese movement of 
February 6, 1853 — Mazzini loses prestige. 

DURING the years 1849-52, in which Piedmont 
was devoting herself to a prudent poHcy 
of concentration after the disasters that she had 
suffered, the fiercest of reactions was raging in the 
rest of Italy. 

So far from summoning again the Parliament 
which had been dissolved on March 13, 1849, 
Ferdinand II. of Naples struck out the Chamber's 
expenses from the Budget, had the adjective 
"Constitutional" erased from the title of the 
government's journal, and proceeded to avenge 
himself for his past fears on those who had imposed 
that government for a time. Arrests were forth- 
with made of such of the most eminent participants 
173 



174 Cavour 

in the events of 1848 as had not fled. Among 
many poUtical trials the most important was that 
of the society of Italian Unity. It dragged on 
for months, and ended on January 31, 1851, with 
sentences of imprisonment on some of the most 
cultured and virtuous men in the kingdom — 
Luigi Settembrini, Carlo Poerio, Nicola Nisco 
and others. Professor Settembrini had really 
been condemned to death, but the penalty was 
commuted to one of Hfe imprisonment. A few 
hours before the sentence was read to him, he 
wrote to his wife the following words, which reveal 
to us the nobility of his soul : 

I desire, beloved but unfortunate companion of my 
life, to write to you at this moment when for sixteen 
hours the judges have been deciding my fate. If I am 
condemned to die, I shall be unable to see you or my 
dearest children any more. Now that I am calmly 
prepared for everything, I can devote my thoughts 
to you for a little. I am serene, my Gigia, and ready 
for whatever may befall. ... If I am sentenced to 
death, I can promise you by our love and by the 
affection of our children, that your Luigi will not be 
untrue to himself. I shall die in the assurance that 
my blood will be fruitful of good to my country. I 
shall die with the calm courage of the martyrs. And 
my last words shall be to my country, my Gigia, my 
Raffaello, and my Giulia. To you and to our beloved 
children it shall not be a reproach that I perish on 
the gallows. Some day you will be honoured for it. 
I know that you will be crushed with grief; but keep 



Reactions in Italy 175 

up your heart, my Gigia, and take care of your life 
for the sake of our dear children. Tell them that my 
spirit will be ever with you all, that I shall see you, 
and hear you, and continue to love you as I have loved 
you and as I love you in this dread hour. . . . Tell 
them to remember those words that I spoke from the 
dock on the day of my defence. Tell them that I, 
blessing them and kissing them a thousand times, 
leave them three precepts : to acknowledge and worship 
God; to love work; to love their country above all 
things else. . . . 

Carlo Poerio was the most illustrious of these 
convicted men; he had held office in the ministry 
during the brief period of constitutional govern- 
ment. He was given to understand that, if he 
asked for mercy, the King would grant it; and he 
was reminded of his aged mother, who was now 
solitary, since her other son, Alessandro, had died 
in the defence of Venice. But Poerio stood firm. 
"The King ought to ask my pardon, not I the 
King's," he answered. "For he has destroyed the 
Constitution that he swore to uphold; he has 
oppressed my fellow-citizens. And I, who prefer 
to be the oppressed rather than the oppressor, will 
never stoop to do what I consider an imbecoming 
act." 

William Gladstone, the famous English states- 
man, was in Naples at the time. He attended 
the trial, and visited the prisons in which these 
patriots were confined. Indignant at such 
tyranny, he published, on July 11, 1851, after his 



176 Cavour 

retiirn to England, a letter, addressed to Aberdeen, 
then head of the English ministry, in which he 
denounced the conduct of the Bourbon govern- 
ment as "an outrage upon religion, upon civiliza- 
tion, upon humanity and upon decency." He 
was speaking not of some isolated instance of 
excessive severity, but of 

incessant, systematic, deliberate violation of the law 
by the power appointed to watch over and maintain 
it. . . . The government is in bitter and cruel, as well 
as utterly illegal, hostility to whatever in the nation 
really lives and moves and forms the main-spring of 
practical progress and improvement. . . . The effect 
of all this is a total inversion of all moral and social 
ideas. Law, instead of being respected, is odious. 
Force, and not affection, is the foundation of govern- 
ment. . . . The governing power, which teaches of 
itself that it is the image of God upon earth, is clothed, 
in the view of the overwhelming majority of the 
thinking public, with all the vices for its attributes. 
I have seen and heard the strong and too true ex- 
pression used: "This is the negation of God erected 
into a system of government." 

As to the number of political prisoners, Gladstone 
wrote: "I do believe that twenty thousand is no 
unreasonable estimate." And he continued: 

I do not scruple to assert . . . that when every effort 
has been used to concoct a charge, if possible, out of 
the perversion and partial production of real evidence, 
this often fails : and then the resort is to perjury and to 



Reactions in Italy 177 

forgery. The miserable creatures to be found in most 
communities, but especially in those where the govern- 
ment is the great agent of corruption upon the people, 
the wretches who are ready to sell the liberty and life 
of fellow-subjects for gold, and to throw their own 
souls into the bargain, are deliberately employed by 
executive power, to depose according to their inven- 
tions against the man whom it is thought desirable 
to ruin. . . . But surely, you will say, the prisoner 
will be able to rebut that, if false, by counter-evidence. 
Alas ! he may have counter-evidence mountains high, 
but he is not allowed to bring it. 

Referring to Carlo Poerio, Gladstone wrote: 

I must say, after a pretty full examination of his case, 
that the condemnation of such a man for treason is 
a proceeding just as much conformable to the laws 
of truth, justice, decency ... as would be a like con- 
demnation in this country of any of our best known 
public men, Lord John Russell, or Lord Lansdowne, 
or Sir James Graham, or yourself 

Lastly he described the treatment of Poerio 
and his companions after condemnation. Each 
of the sentenced political prisoners was chained 
to one of the most degraded criminals in the gaols, 
and for no purpose were the chains unfastened, 
day or night ; "and the meaning of these last words 
must be well considered; they are to be taken 
strictly." 

Another important political trial was the one 
that arose out of the events of May 15, 1848. 



178 Cavour 

It lasted till October 8, 1852. Fortunately many 
of the accused were in safety outside the kingdom, 
but some were arrested. Seven of them, including 
Silvio Spaventa, the illustrious thinker, were 
condemned to death, and the extreme penalty was 
not remitted till the moment of execution. Trials 
and condemnations went on in the provinces 
also, and from every part of the kingdom bands 
of political prisoners were sent to the gaols of 
Procida, Nisida and Ischia. 

In Sicily, General Filangieri, whom the King 
had appointed as his lieutenant in the island, 
strongly suppressed all opposition, and then 
proposed to reconcile the Sicilians to the Bourbon 
Court and to lift the country out of its wretched 
economic conditions. But, thwarted by the 
ministers at Naples and by the King himself, he 
was unable to achieve much, and in the end 
he retired; so that there also the stoutest prop of 
the Bourbon government was found to be the 
captain of gendarmes, Salvatore Maniscalco. 

Ferdinand II., in his fierce struggle with Liberal- 
ism, felt strong in the support of Pius IX., who 
during his stay in NeapoHtan territory had 
completely abandoned the Liberal aspirations of 
his early pontificate. The Pope allowed himself, 
now, to be directed entirely by his Secretary of 
State, Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli, the man who 
had known how to induce four Catholic Powers 
to intervene in opposition to the Roman republic. 




LORD JOHN RUSSELL 

From the engraving by D. J. Pound 

After the photo by Mayall 



Reactions in Italy 179 

The Neapolitans had been obliged to retreat 
before Garibaldi's men; the Spaniards, after 
having been maintained for some time to no 
purpose, went away in February, 1850; but the 
French were still at Rome, and the Austrians in 
Romagna. 

The French, after their occupation of Rome, 
had allowed everybody to leave the city who had 
reason to fear the Pope's vengeance. Pius IX. 
still stayed at Gaeta, but he sent three of his most 
reactionary Cardinals to restore the old regime. 
They began a series of political trials, and some 
of the Liberals who had remained in their native 
land were subjected to persecution. The Presi- 
dent of the French Republic, Louis Napoleon, 
unwilling to appear as an accomplice of such a 
reaction and such tyranny, thought fit to advise 
the Papal Government (by means of a letter ad- 
dressed to his aide-de-camp. Colonel Ney, whom 
he had sent to Rome) on certain essential features 
of the new policy which the Pope wotild do well 
to adopt. The letter was made public through 
the press. It recommended a general amnesty, 
a lay administration, the introduction of the 
Napoleonic code, and a Liberal government; but 
its only effect was to alienate the Pope from its 
author. Pius IX., however, realized that he 
ought to make some concessions before his return. 
From Portici (whither he had at length removed) 
he sent a decree which by implication annulled 
the constitutional decrees, but established a 



i8o Cavour 

Council of State for finance, and provincial and 
communal Councils — the concessions that he had 
already made in 1847. As to the amnesty, the 
exceptions were so many and of such a character 
as to make it really illusory. Finally, in April, 
1850, Pius IX. decided to return to Rome, and he 
took up his residence in the Vatican. He no 
longer showed much interest in affairs of State, but 
left them to Antonelli, who managed, amid his 
diplomatic and financial business, to look after 
his own material interests and those of his family 
also, and succeeded in retaining office until his 
death in 1876. 

Meantime, brigandage went on desolating whole 
provinces. The band of brigands led by Stefano 
Pelloni (// Passatore) became especially notorious. 
Memorable among its many audacities was its 
appearance on the stage of the theatre at Forlim- 
popoli in 1 851; with firearms levelled at the audi- 
ence it made them give up all the contents of their 
pockets — even the keys of the houses of the wealth- 
iest, so that it might go and plunder them un- 
hindered. A month later, // Passatore was killed 
in a fight with the public forces, but even after 
his death bands of brigands continued to scour 
the country districts of the Papal States. 

The position was better in Tuscany. The 
restoration of the Grand-ducal government there 
had been brought about partly by the efforts of 
the Moderate party, which hoped in that way to 
save representative government, and in part by 



I 



Reactions in Italy i8i 

the intervention of the Austrian troops, which re- 
duced Leghorn and remained in the Grand Duchy. 
Hence Leopold IL was in an embarrassing situation 
between two rival influences; and the prevailing 
uncertainty was well represented by the President 
of the Ministry, Giovanni Baldasseroni, who 
asserted that Tuscany, on account of her central 
position in the peninsula and her insignificance, 
was unable to follow a policy of her own, different 
from that of the rest of Italy. And since the 
Constitution still existed in Piedmont, but had 
been suppressed in the other States, an inter- 
mediate decision was taken — after long hesitation. 
On September 21, 1850, the Grand Duke annoimced 
that political circumstances prevented him just 
then from giving representative government a 
new trial, and that "so long as it was impossible 
to call the Legislative Assembly together, every 
power would be exercised by the Prince himself, 
the Cotmcil of State being consulted when it 
seemed desirable, and the maxims of the Constitu- 
tion being observed so far as might be." When, 
after the publication of this decree, Ubaldino 
Peruzzi, Gonfalonier of Florence, induced the 
municipal council to petition the Grand Duke to 
summon Parliament again, the government de- 
posed him from office. Liberty of the press was 
restricted. And at last, when reaction appeared 
to be decisively triumphant everywhere, the 
decree of May 6, 1852 abolished the Statute of 
1848. Meantime, Guerrazzi and his associates 



1 82 Cavour 

in the events of 1848-9 were put on their 
trial. Not until July, 1853, did the proceed- 
ings end. Guerrazzi was sentenced to fifteen 
years' imprisonment — commuted afterwards by 
the Grand Duke to perpetual banishment from 
Tuscany. 

In the Duchy of Modena and Reggio, Francis 
V. repeated his father's hatred of the Liberals 
and his father's insistence on the absoluteness of 
his power. But he acted with less cruelty. At 
Parma, on the contrary, the young Charles III. 
(successor to his father, Charles Louis of Bourbon, 
who abdicated in 1849) had introduced the most 
infamous system of government imaginable. He 
was a true example of the petty mediaeval tyrant — 
profligate, cruel, ignorant, and villainous. Under 
his rule, the lash became the principal institution 
of the State, and he himself used to go through 
the streets with a riding-whip in his hand and 
strike everybody who neglected to bow to him. 
There was no longer any security of person or 
property, since every whim of the Duke's became 
law. In that little State more than three hundred 
persons were flogged within four years. It may 
be imagined how great was the hatred of this 
miserable princelet. On March 26, 1854, in the 
streets of the city and by full light of day, Charles 
III. was assassinated. It was an act of personal 
vengeance. He was succeeded on the throne by 
his son Robert, who was still a child, and whose 
mother acted as regent. The government became 



Reactions in Italy 183 

more humane, but its policy was still retrograde 
and Austrian. 

Lombardy-Venetia lived under the military 
rule of Marshal Radetzky, whose favour with the 
Emperor, gained during the last war, enabled him 
to act the part of a dictator. According to the 
agreement made with the Piedmontese plenipo- 
tentiaries during the negotiations for peace, an 
amnesty was published on August 12, 1849. It 
said that even those who had fled might return 
in peace to their homes, provided they did so 
before September — except eighty-six individuals 
named, who "by reason of their unjustifiable 
persistence in revolutionary plots, and their 
subversive tendencies, could not for the present 
be tolerated in the imperial and royal dominions." 
But little reliance could be placed in the decree, 
as an incident showed during that same month 
of August. On the Emperor's birthday, a woman 
of ill repute, an associate of the Austrian officers, 
decorated her windows with the Austrian colours. 
The inhabitants gathered round and began to 
hiss, with the result that some were arrested and 
immediately sentenced. Among the punished 
were two young women, who were flogged for 
having laughed during the disturbance. And as 
if such an infamous proceeding were not enough, 
Radetzky demanded of the municipality payment 
for the canes that were used, and for the vinegar 
and ice with which the sores of the flogged were 



1 84 Cavour 

treated. Not only were patriots subjected to 
corporal punishment, but their property was 
plundered. The reaction, in short, fell upon the 
country with all the weight of military arbitrari- 
ness. The population adopted an attitude of 
silent but determined opposition to the foreign 
domination; the Austrian officials and soldiers 
were ostracized. Radetzky himself frankly ad- 
mitted it in a letter, dated November 4, 1849, to 
his daughter Federica: 

The country has never loved us Germans — and 
never will. But it realizes that recourse to force is 
useless, and so it is submissive. We are avenged, 
and that is enough. 

Amid this hostility to the Austrians, two differ- 
ent developments began to show themselves. 
The rich put their faith in the Liberal monarchy 
of Piedmont. But the policy of Piedmont still 
seemed too timid to arouse the enthusiasm of the 
majority ; and by far the greater number of people 
preferred the republican idea that Mazzini was 
preaching. 

Mazzini had taken refuge in Switzerland after 
the fall of the Roman republic, and there he 
founded a society for the publication of political 
writings of a patriotic character. He went after- 
wards to England, where he formed a central 
committee to make preparations for the Italian 
people's war. It was in constant commimication 



Mazzini's Propaganda 185 

with the sub-committees established in the various 
provinces of Lombardy-Venetia. In order to 
raise the necessary funds, he floated the Italian 
National Loan. The bonds were readily taken 
up, notwithstanding the grave peril to which 
their holders were exposed. The government, 
which knew that it was detested, made many 
arrests, and savage sentences followed. Antonio 
Sciesa, a workman, was condemned to death for 
posting a revolutionary proclamation at the street 
comers. On the way to execution he was offered 
pardon if he would say who had given him the 
manifesto. " I would rather be shot," he answered 
calmly: and so he went to his death (August 2, 
1851). 

In that year the Emperor Francis Joseph, hoping 
that his presence would arouse some feeling of 
loyalty in the Italian people, went to Venice and 
Milan, but hostile silence met him everywhere. 
At Como, the municipal council refused to vote 
any money for festivities in his honour. It was 
dissolved. A few days later a citizen of Como, 
Luigi Dottesio, who had largely helped to spread 
in Italy the historical and political publications of 
Capolago's Helvetian press, was hanged at Venice. 

The most active of the revolutionary committees 
was the one at Mantua — headed by Enrico Tazzoli, 
a priest of lofty mind and generous natiire. Its 
ranks were swelling every day; they spread, in 
fact, through a great part of Lombardy-Venetia. 
On October 29, 1851, the police arrested at Mantua 



1 86 Cavour 

one of the members, the priest Giuseppe Grioli, 
who was accused of having tried to induce a 
Hungarian soldier to desert. Executed a few 
days later, he, too, died without compromising 
his associates. The police, however, pursued 
their investigations, and little by little they laid 
bare the whole conspiracy. Within a short time, 
more than two hundred patriots were in the 
Lombardo- Venetian prisons. Then was instituted 
that dark trial at Mantua in which the Austrian 
judges rivalled the Bourbon in perfidy and cruelty, 
and the accused Lombardo-Venetians equalled 
the Neapolitans in the nobleness of their indomit- 
able courage. On December 7, 1852, the execu- 
tions began on the esplanade of the fortress of 
Belfiore. The procession of the condemned passed 
before the house of one of them — Carlo Poma, a 
distinguished doctor, beloved by all the city. He 
heard the agonized cry of his mother, and stifling 
his sobs he bowed his head on the shoulder of his 
companion Tazzoli. The first to be hanged was 
Giovanni Zambelli, a young Venetian painter, 
who a few days before, greeting his father for the 
last time, had said to him: "I hope that my sacri- 
fice, and that of my associates, will be of service 
to my country. For, if the blood of the martyrs 
of religion was the seed of Christians, our blood, 
shed for our native land, will be the seed of good 
patriots." He was followed by Angelo Scarsellini, 
also a Venetian, warm-hearted and daring, who 
had even conceived the idea of taking the Emperor 



Mazzini's Propaganda 187 

prisoner on one of his excursions at Venice. As 
he went up the steps of the scaffold, he repeated 
the lines that are put into the mouth of the Doge 
in the Opera Marin Faliero: 

II palco h a noi trionfo, 
Ove ascendiam ridenti ; 

Ma il sangue dei valenti 
Perduto non sara.^ 

A Venetian, too, was the third victim, Bernardo 
di Canal. Just before going to his death he wrote 
to his mother: 

Bear up, mother! Live to weep for me — but 
with resignation, not despair. Good-bye, my beloved 
mother, good-bye ! I do not tell you to forget me ; you 
could not, nor would I wish it. But think of me as 
one whom you will some day see again. Courage and 
patience ! Good-bye ! My last thought shall be of 
you; for you are the most fervent kisses of your 
affectionate son Bernardo. 

Tazzoli had thrown his cloak over Poma's head, 
so that he should not see the sufferings of the 
others. The saintly priest, who had already 
suffered the pain of degradation from Holy Orders, 
mounted the scaffold with the serenity of the 
early Christian Martyrs. The last to die that day 
was Carlo Poma. 

» To us the scaffold is a triumph ; we ascend it with a smile 
The blood of brave men is not spilled in vain. 



1 88 Cavour 

The arrest of many of the conspirators, and the 
flight of others, had thrown the preparations for 
the new Lombardo-Venetian revolution into con- 
fusion. Yet at Milan a group of daring inhabit- 
ants made ready for the struggle, under the illusion 
that they could repeat the miracle of the Five Days. 
Mazzini, who was always hoping to instigate a 
general rising, and had come to Lugano in order 
to watch events from a closer standpoint, was 
easily persuaded to organize the attempt. On 
the evening of Sunday, February 6, 1853, some 
troops of insiu-gents threw themselves upon certain 
guard-rooms and massacred a number of sentinels 
— themselves unhappy victims of the same tyranny 
which had led them from Austria into Italy to 
oppress another nation. But the movement 
assumed no great proportions. Many even of the 
stoutest patriots, understanding the impossibility 
of success, had discountenanced it. Within a 
few hours the military dispersed the two hundred 
who had risen in arms; many were arrested; the 
Austrian government, applying its usual remedy, 
hanged sixteen of them two days later, and orders 
were given to proceed with greater severity in the 
Mantuan trials. At Belfiore, on March 3d, were 
hanged the Count Carlo Montanari, a highly 
esteemed engineer of Verona; the priest Barto- 
lomeo Grazioli, who was loved as a father by his 
parishioners of Revere ; and Tito Speri, a true hero, 
who had been the soul of the defence of Brescia 
during the Ten Days of 1849. A few days later 



Mazzini's Propaganda 189 

Pietro Frattini, who had distinguished himself 
among the Garibaldians in the defence of Rome, 
ascended the scaffold. Many others were sent 
to prison — among them, Giuseppe Finzi, Alberto 
Cavalletto, and Luigi Pastro. Every social class 
was represented among those condemned at 
Mantua, and this great trial served to show the 
civilized world that all Lombardy-Venetia was 
united in opposition to the foreign domination. 

In spite of the unfortunate issue of the Milanese 
rising, Joseph Mazzini, who, living abroad, easily 
deceived himself as to the real state of things, 
continued to organize revolutionary movements. 
It was at his instigation that Lieutenant-Colonel 
Pietro Fortunate Calvi undertook to raise the 
Cadore district of Venetia. Calvi had won glory 
by his heroic defence of that region against the 
Austrians in 1848, and he now relied upon the 
prestige which he then acquired among its inhabi- 
tants. But he was arrested by the Austrians on 
September 7, 1853, while attempting to cross the 
Trentino on his way to the Cadore from Switzer- 
land. He was led prisoner to Mantua, and in 
1855 was hanged. Thus did Austria, undaunted, 
follow out her system of repressing with violence 
the patriotic aspirations of the Italians. 

But, in the course of time, the continuous incite- 
ment of insurrections that were visionary rather 
than practicable, and the wasting of so many valu- 
able lives, alienated many people from Mazzini's 
ideas. And in particular the fruitless attempt at 



190 Cavour 

Milan on February 6, 1853, estranged the most 
thoughtftd section of his old followers — especially 
as just at that time the Italian policy of Piedmont 
was asserted with greater boldness. 



XI 
cavour's beginnings as prime minister 

Tutti siam di un sol paese, 

Solo un sangue in noi traspar, 
A ogni tromba piemontese 

Mandi un' eco e I'Alpe e il mar. 
Giovanni Prati (1815-1884): Inno perV esercito piemontese.'^ 

'We are all the sons of one country'; the same blood runs in 
all our veins. Let the Alps and the sea echo to the sound of 
every Piedmontese trumpet. — Hymn for the Piedmontese Army. 



191 



CHAPTER XI 
cavour's beginnings as prime minister 

The mission of Piedmont — Its moral progress under the Cavour 
Ministry — Its assertion of Italian nationality; the memo- 
randum of 1853 — Alliance with the Western Powers; dis- 
cussions in the Chamber — Suppression of the religious 
corporations; Massimo D'Azeglio's letter — Victory of the 
Piedmontese at the Tchernaja — Victor Emmanuel II. goes 
to Paris and London — Daniel Manin and his propaganda in 
favour of Piedmont — Garibaldi at Caprera. 

IT was the curious fortune of Italy that all her 
provinces experienced — one might almost say 
in turn — a period of splendour. Only Piedmont 
had long remained behind in this exalted rivalry, 
occupied exclusively with the exercise of arms; 
but amid the hard experiences of military life the 
Piedmontese people, and the Savoy dynasty that 
for centuries had ruled them, acquired valuable 
qualities of character — strength of mind, coupled 
with calmness; firmness of purpose, united to 
profoimd devotion to the idea of duty. When 
afterwards, in the l8th century, to these high 
moral gifts was added that intellectual force 
of which Piedmont had so far shown but little, 
the small people at the north-western extremity 
13 193 



194 Cavour 

of Italy stepped at once into the front rank of the 
nation's new hopes. Among a weak, nerveless, 
unstable society went forth at that time, from 
Piedmont, the powerful voice of Vittorio Alfieri, 
recalling the men of Italy to the thought of their 
country's former greatness and the need of a speedy 
revival. It almost seemed that even then Pied- 
mont was proclaiming, by the mouth of her famous 
poet, the mission to which she was destined. 

Hard upon the great poet followed the great 
historian who, continuing Guicciardini's work, 
diffused more and more widely the conception 
of Italian nationality. And side by side with 
Botta, and after him, came a brilliant company 
of elect spirits who, bom in the Napoleonic period, 
readily caught the new Liberal and Italian aspira- 
tions, but who, faithful to the orderly traditions 
of their country, sought to link the future with 
the past, and urged their monarchy to assume the 
direction of the national movement. As if to 
facilitate the execution of this design, it happened 
in 1 83 1, that the elder branch of the reigning 
house, which had failed to understand the new 
times, became extinct and was succeeded by a 
new branch, which grafted itself on the old trunk, 
in the person of that Charles Emmanuel who, 
first among the princes of Savoy, had dared to 
raise, amid the cowardice of the 17th century, the 
cry of Italian independence. Nevertheless, the 
first monarch of the new line, Charles Albert, 
showed some want of resoluteness, for he wavered 



As Prime Minister 195 

between the new aspirations and a number of 
compromises with the old regime. But he was 
succeeded, on the gloomy evening of the battle of 
Novara, by an energetic prince who had at once a 
clear vision of his own and Piedmont's mission, 
and a strong desire to carry it out. Thus Pied- 
mont was able to give to the Italian cause a people 
well tempered by experience, active, tenacious, 
discreet in promise and firm in fulfilment; a brave 
and disciplined army; a glorious dynasty, confid- 
ent of Italy's future. And the culmination of its 
fortune was the capacity to provide also the great 
minister who knew how to realize the dream of the 
patriots. 

The f imdamental problem was this : How was a 
State which numbered five million inhabitants, 
and which the defeat of Novara had left with its 
army broken, its finances exhausted, and an abso- 
lute lack of allies — how was such a State to con- 
quer Austria, an Empire of thirty-eight million 
people? This was the fundamental problem, for 
victory over Austria would determine the solution 
of all the other phases of the Italian question. 

The illusion of 1848, that Italy could do it for 
herself, had gone. To attain the great end that 
men dreamed of, it was necessary not only to keep 
alive the moral force of Italian patriotism, but to 
sectire also the material strength of an ally. And 
therefore Piedmont's most tirgent need was a 
credit, a prestige, equal to her lofty ambitions. 

Hence the first phase of Cavour's political work 



196 Cavour 

had for its purpose the moral progress of Piedmont ; 
Piedmont must become a model of civil and eco- 
nomic advance — must show to Europe the aptitude 
of Italians for free self-government, and attract 
to herself the sympathy of the patriots of the 
peninsula. It was a poUcy of wide range, for it 
embraced at the same time internal reform, 
economic interests, religious affairs, diplomacy — 
in fact, all the departments of public life. 

And first, in order to obtain the means of 
supporting the splendid policy of the future, a 
complete financial reorganization was necessary. 
Cavour, therefore, when in November, 1852, he 
assumed the Presidency of the Council, took upon 
himself the Ministry of Finance. Boldly defying 
unpopularity, he increased the taxes ; yet it was in 
1853 that Piedmont passed through a very grave 
crisis, caused by the failure of the corn, silk, and 
vine harvests. Cavour's political opponents tried 
to nullify his efforts, and by defamation and 
calumny the most violent of them sought to 
represent him to the public as a starver of the 
people. On October 18, 1853, Cavour's palace 
was surrounded by a tumultuous crowd which 
cursed and threatened him. But these excesses 
aroused the indignation of the reasonable section 
of the country; and at the new general election, 
in December, 1853, i't showed its readiness to await 
in confidence the results of Cavour's work. On 
the other hand, the government set itself to pro- 
mote energetical!}^ all honest activity and useful 




id 



A CARICATURE OF CAVOUR 
From a contemporary print 



As Prime Minister 197 

initiative; and, by large expenditure on public 
works, it developed Piedmont's resources. Of 
special importance, even by reason of the over- 
coming of technical difficulties in the cutting of 
the Giovi tunnel, was the construction of the 
railway from Turin to Genoa, which was opened 
in 1854. Within a few years, commerce and 
industry flourished, prosperity and comfort spread, 
and the State finances were restored to a healthy 
condition. Meantime, King Victor Emmanuel 
devoted his attention in particular to the army, 
and availing himself of the services of the Minister 
La Marmora, he reorganized it so thoroughly, 
and brought it to such a state of discipline, instruc- 
tion and equipment, that it recovered the prestige 
lost at Novara. 

In foreign politics, too, the coimtry soon felt 
with satisfaction that the government was in the 
hands of strong, courageous men. 

After the Milanese movement of February 6, 
1853, the Emperor of Austria, "having considered 
the clear proofs of the participation of political 
fugitives from the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom 
in the recent events at Milan," decreed on Febru- 
ary 13th that "all the property, movable and 
immovable, of political refugees from the kingdom 
of Lombardy-Venetia, situated in these countries, 
is to be considered from to-day as placed under 
sequestration." Those emigrants had nearly all 
sought refuge in Piedmont, and were now citizens 



198 Cavour 

of the Kingdom of Sardinia. Cavour, therefore, 
demanded explanations from Vienna of this breach 
of international law, but Austria, encouraged by 
the indifference which Europe showed towards 
Piedmont, declared that the step was necessary 
to the security of the monarchy, and declined to 
withdraw. Though feeling his isolation, Cavour 
had the courage to face any risk. He recalled 
the Piedmontese ambassador from Vienna (which 
naturally involved the withdrawal of the Austrian 
ambassador from Tiirin); and in a memorandum 
addressed to the European Powers he protested 
against the tyranny of Austria, arguing that a 
just government ought to have proved the com- 
plicity of the refugees before condemning them. 
And he induced the Subalpine Parliament to vote 
a subsidy in aid of the victims. In this way, 
Piedmont nobly displayed her sentiment of Italian 
nationality. 

But to prepare for the future struggle it was 
necessary that this State, whose forces were so 
small and whose plans were so vast, should find 
a means of entering the main stream of European 
interests. France and England, the only Powers 
who had so far shown any sympathy for Piedmont 
and her institutions, had declared war on Russia. 
The difficulties which they met in the Crimea 
induced them to seek help. They hoped to draw 
Austria into the struggle, for she was natur- 
ally anxious to prevent any increase of Russian 
power in the Balkan peninsula. But the Emperor 



As Prime Minister 199 

Francis Joseph was afraid of appearing ungratefiil 
towards the Czar who had helped him to stifle 
the Hungarian insurrection in 1849; he therefore 
adopted a policy full of uncertainties and equivo- 
cations. The Western Powers were confident that 
in the end the force of material interests would 
overcome, at the Court of Vienna, the sentiment 
of gratitude, and they continued their negotia- 
tions for a long time. Cavour watched the 
international situation with anxiety, for an under- 
standing between the Western Powers and Austria 
would have permanently assiired Austria's pre- 
dominance in Italy. 

By good fortune, the evasions of Austria induced 
the Western Powers, who needed immediate help, 
to turn to the small but sturdy Piedmont. Cavour, 
alive to the supreme necessity that Piedmont 
should escape from her isolation, caught the ball 
on the rebound and immediately annoimced his 
willingness to join the alliance. But it was not 
easy to negotiate an agreement. Through its 
Foreign Minister, Dabormida, the Piedmontese 
government demanded from the Western Powers 
a promise that when the war was finished the 
condition of Italy would be taken into considera- 
tion, and that meantime they would use their 
good offices with Austria to secure the removal 
of the sequestrations from the property of the 
Lombard©- Venetian emigrants. The two Powers, 
however, were not prepared to abandon the hope 
of drawing Austria into their alliance, and they 



200 Cavour 

declined to commit themselves to any written 
promise. Dabormida felt that he had gone too 
far in his demands to be able to withdraw them 
without humiliation, and in face of the refusal of 
the Powers he resigned office. Cavour, with a 
courage that seemed rashness, took the respon- 
sibility of concluding the alliance without any 
kind of guarantee, and, as acting Minister of 
Foreign Affairs, he signed the treaty (January, 

1855). 

These diplomatic embarrassments were fol- 
lowed by another — the serious difficulty of obtain- 
ing Parliamentary approval of the treaty. For 
it gave rise to severe criticism, especially on the 
part of the more advanced Liberals. A fine way, 
they exclaimed, of asserting the policy of progress 
and liberty begun by Piedmont — to go and uphold 
with arms the barbarity and despotism of the 
Turk! A fine way of aiding the national cause — 
to push into an alliance in which there was every 
probability of fighting on the same side as Austria ! 
Angelo Brofferio, the famous republican orator, 
wrote: "The alliance, considered economically, 
is profligate, from the military point of view a 
gigantic folly, politically a great crime." 

There was a heated debate in the Chamber, but 
at last the treaty was approved by 95 votes to 64. 

In his speeches, Cavour made it understood 
that when he entered into the treaty he was 
thinking of the interests of Italy rather than of 
Piedmont. Here, for instance, are some of the 



As Prime Minister 201 

words that he addressed to the Chamber at that 
time: 

" How," it will be asked , "can this treaty ever be of 
usetoltaly?" I answer : "In the only way that is af- 
forded to us, and perhaps to any one, to help Italy in 
the present conditions of Europe. ..." I believe that 
the essential preliminary to improving Italy's cir- 
cumstances — the indispensable and all-important 
requisite — is a restoration of her reputation, so that 
all the peoples of the world, both rulers and ruled, 
may do justice to her qualities. And, therefore, two 
things are necessary: first, to prove to Europe that 
Italy has political intelligence enough to conduct her- 
self properly, to rule herself in liberty, and that she 
is in a fit condition to adopt the best forms of govern- 
ment that are known; secondly, to prove that her 
military valour is equal to that of her ancestors. In 
the past you have rendered this service to Italy by 
a course of conduct pursued for seven years, showing 
to Europe in the clearest fashion that Italians can 
rule themselves with wisdom, prudence and faithful- 
ness. It still remains for you to do her an equal, if 
not a greater, service; it remains for our country to 
show that the sons of Italy know how to fight as 
becomes brave men on the fields of glory. And I am 
certain, gentlemen, that the laurels which our soldiers 
shall win in the regions of the East will do more for 
Italy's future than everything achieved by those who 
have believed they were effecting her regeneration 
with voice and pen. 

The debates of the Subalpine Parliament in the 



202 Cavour 

winter of 1855 are memorable not only for this 
treaty of alliance, but also for the Bill, presented 
to it by the ministry, for the suppression of many 
religious corporations. Precisely in that year 
(1855) in which Austria concluded the Concordat, 
renouncing nearly all the rights of the State with 
regard to the Church, Piedmont was proceeding 
boldly with the transformation of the State accord- 
ing to the principles of Liberalism. But just 
then Victor Emmanuel suffered heavy family 
losses. Within less than a month he lost mother, 
wife, and brother. The Clerical party attributed 
these bereavements to the hand of God, who, 
they said, was chastising the King for having 
allowed his ministry to bring before the Chamber 
the proposal to suppress the religious corporations. 
The King, spared from no moral torture, passed 
through a period of great bitterness. When he 
went to Alessandria to review the corps that was 
going to the Crimea, and to present the colours 
to it, he turned to General Giovanni Durando, 
who was accompanying the expedition, and re- 
marked to him: "You are fortunate. General. 
You go to fight the Russians ; I have to fight monks 
and friars." The Chamber of Deputies approved 
the Bill; but, while it awaited discussion in the 
Senate, the bishops of the kingdom, profiting by 
the King's state of mind, offered to contribute a 
stated sum towards the needs of the exchequer, 
provided the Bill was withdrawn. The King, 
still perturbed by the entreaties which his dead 




MASSIMO D'AZEGLIO 
From a contemporary print 



As Prime Minister 203 

mother and wife had made to him not to offend 
the clergy, accepted the proposal. But even in 
ecclesiastical questions Cavour coiild be energetic 
and determined, though avoiding exaggerations. 
He would have nothing to do with such a trans- 
action, and on April 26, 1855, he resigned. 

This event caused lively agitations in the 
country, and Massimo D'Azeglio, with truly noble 
zeal for the public welfare, felt it his duty to make 
the King realize the risk that he ran in yielding 
to clerical pressure. Unable to see the King, he 
wrote this admirable letter : 

Sire: 

In Spain it was forbidden to touch the King under 
pain of death. There was one King whose clothing 
caught fire; nobody ventured to touch him and the 
King was burned to death. But I, though I should 
risk my head, or even lose entirely your Majesty's 
favour, would think myself the most cowardly of men 
if, at a moment like this, I did not address a word to 
you — in writing, since your Majesty does not give 
me opportunity to speak it. Sire, believe an old and 
faithful servant, who in serving you has thought only 
of his King's benefit and honour, and his country's 
good. Kneeling at your feet, and with tears in my 
eyes, I say to you : Go no farther along the way that 
you have taken. It is not too late. Return to your 
former course. In one day an intrigue of friars 
has destroyed the work of your reign, disturbed the 
country, shaken the Constitution, and obscured your 
reputation for good faith. There is not a moment 
to lose. The official declarations have not finally 



204 Cavour 

settled the question. It is said that the Crown was 
willing to seek fresh information. Let the Crown 
announce that this information has shown the pro- 
posed conditions to be unacceptable. Let them pass 
into oblivion . . . and let things resume their former 
natural and constitutional course. Piedmont endures 
all; but to be put afresh under the priestly yoke, no 
— by Heaven! Observe, in Spain, the intrigues of 
the friars with the Queen in order to make her sign 
a shameful concordat to which things have brought 
her. Intrigues like these ruined James Stuart, 
Charles X., and many another. Sire, you know that 
what I have foretold to you has happened. Believe 
me, the question is not one of religion, but of in- 
terests. Amadeus II. disputed for thirty years with 
Rome and won. Be firm, your Majesty, and you 
too will be victorious. Be not angry with me. 
This action of mine is the action of an honour- 
able man, of a faithful subject, and of a friend of 
your Majesty. 

AZEGLIO. 

Turin, April 29, 1855. 

Four days later, Victor Emmanuel decided to 
recall Cavour to the head of the government. The 
Senate was allowed to proceed with its discussion 
of the Bill to suppress the religious corporations. 
During the month of May, the Bill was approved 
by the Senate, and sanctioned by the King. 
Cavour had won. But that furious struggle with 
friars and nuns, sustained rather at Court and in 
family circles than in ParHament, had left him a 
little weary. He went to rest awhile in the country 



As Prime Minister 205 

at Leri, in the Vercelli district, and then returned 
to face the difficulties of his policy. 

There was reason to fear that the Piedmontese 
troops sent to the Crimea under the command of 
General Alfonso La Marmora, were being kept in 
the background by the allies, and would die of 
disease in the trenches without having opportunity 
to win distinction. Cholera, in fact, was decimat- 
ing their ranks, and already many a Piedmontese 
family was mourning the loss of one of its beloved 
members in that far-off land. Cavour wrote to 
La Marmora, urging him to find some means of 
bringing his men under fire, and waited with great 
anxiety for news of fighting. At last, on August 17, 
1855, he received the telegram which announced 
the victory won by the Piedmontese on the pre- 
vious day at Tchernaja. That feat of arms 
restored the prestige of the Piedmontese army. 
The English commander-in-chief, Simpson, said 
in his order of the day: "In this battle the Sar- 
dinian army has shown itself worthy to fight by 
the side of the greatest military nations of Europe." 
A rapid change came over Italian public opinion; 
everybody showed enthusiasm for the alliance 
and professed to have favoured it all along. 

Cavour' s prestige increased, and with it the 
prestige of Piedmont — as was seen at the close of 
that year 1855, when Victor Emmanuel went to 
Paris and London to visit his royal allies. Be- 
sides Cavour, the King took with him Massimo 



2o6 Cavour 

D'Azeglio, who was invited, as he himself put it, 
to act as a lightning-conductor; his presence at 
the King's side was to convince Europe that Pied- 
mont was not a revolutionary country, and to 
weaken somewhat the common impression that 
Cavour was a magnificent anarchist. 

At Paris and London, Victor Emmanuel was 
received with royal splendour, and his visits were 
a popular success. A poem giving a frank and 
vivacious description of his qualities and charac- 
teristics found favour in the streets of London. 
Entertained by the City of London, whose Lord 
Mayor wished to honour his sovereign's ally, he 
made the following speech: 

My Lord Mayor, 

I offer my heartfelt thanks to you, to the Aldermen, 
and to the Commons of the City of London, for your 
courteous congratulations on the occasion of my visit 
to Her Majesty the Queen and to the English nation. 
The reception that I meet with in this ancient land 
of constitutional liberty ... is to me a proof of 
the sympathy inspired by the policy which I have 
hitherto pursued and in which I intend constantly 
to persevere. 

The close alliance between the two most powerful 
nations of the earth, whom I am now visiting, is 
honourable to the wisdom of the Sovereigns who rule 
them not less than to the character of their people. 
They have understood how preferable an advantage- 
ous friendship is to ancient rivalry. This alliance, 
a new fact in history, is the triumph of civilisation. 




THE MILANESE MONUMENT TO THE SARDINIAN ARMY 
From a photograph by Vela 



As Prime Minister 207 

In spite of the misfortunes that weighed upon 
my kingdom at the opening of my reign, I have 
entered into this alliance, for the House of Savoy ever 
believed it a duty to draw the sword when the fight 
was for justice and independence. If the forces 
which I bring to my allies are those of a State that is 
not vast, I bring with me, nevertheless, the power 
of a loyalty that nobody has ever doubted, supported 
by the valour of an army that follows faithfully every- 
where the banner of its kings. We cannot lay down 
arms before we have secured an honourable and 
therefore lasting peace. To this we shall attain 
with the help of the Almighty, seeking unanimously 
the triumph of the true rights and the just desires of 
each nation. 

I thank you for the good wishes that you this day 
express for my own and my kingdom's future. While 
you speak to me of the future, it gives me pleasure 
to be able instead to speak to you of the present, and 
to congratulate you on the high place that England 
has attained. It is due alike to the free and noble 
character of the nation and to the virtues of your 
Queen 

At Paris Napoleon III. asked Cavour what 
could be done for Piedmont and for Italy. Natur- 
ally Cavour did not shut his eyes to such an 
opportunity. At the moment he was unable to 
speak of war with Austria, for the Emperor of the 
French did not wish it; so he confined himself to 
indicating certain ameliorations that might be 
introduced into Italy, and in particular he urged 
the necessity of expelling the Austrians from 



2o8 Cavour 

Romagna, and of organizing that region under a 
civil administration independent of the Pope. 
In this way he struck at both the Austrian pre- 
dominance and the temporal power — the two 
greatest obstacles to the making of the new Italy. 

By this time patriotic opinion was turning with 
more confidence to Piedmont. Of this tendency 
the great Dictator of Venice, Daniel Manin, at 
that time an exile in Paris, made himself the 
mouthpiece. In September, 1855, he published 
his celebrated declaration: 

The Republican party, so bitterly calumniated, 
performs a fresh act of abnegation and sacrifice for 
the national cause. Convinced that before every- 
thing else it is necessary to make Italy — that this is 
the first and dominant question — it says to the House 
of Savoy: "Make Italy and I am with you; if not, 
not." And it says to the constitutionalists: "Give 
your thoughts to the making of Italy, and not to the 
aggrandizement of Piedmont; be Italians and not 
provincials, and I am with you; if not, not." It 
seems to me that the time has come to abolish the 
old party names which indicate agreement and dis- 
agreement upon secondary and subordinate questions 
rather than upon the chief and vital one. The 
distinction is between two camps — the camp of 
national, unionist opinion, and the camp of municipal, 
separatist opinion. I, a Republican, plant the 
unionist standard. Let it be joined, surrounded, 
defended by all who wish that Italy may be, and 
Italy shall be. 



As Prime Minister 209 

Satisfaction must have filled the heart of the 
illustrious exile, when, in November of that year, 
on the occasion of King Victor's visit to Paris, he 
saw the Italian tricolour intertwined with the flags 
of France and England. To him it was like a vision 
of the future — a joyous project that cheered the 
last years of his life, and encouraged him to give 
his whole energy in support of the new programme. 

Joseph Garibaldi, too, was beginning to adopt 
ideas of the same kind. After his prodigious 
retreat of 1849, the hero landed on the Ligurian 
coast; but the Piedmontese government, fearing 
that he would set agitation afoot, induced him to go 
again into exile. He spent some time at Tangier, 
at Liverpool, and in 1850 at New York, where he 
was employed as a workman in a small candle 
factory established by his friend and compatriot 
Meucci. In 1851 he began again, together with a 
companion, to trade between Central and South 
American ports. Next, passing into the Pacific, 
he went to China. In the autumn of 1853 he 
returned to New York, but sailed afterwards for 
Europe as master of a merchant vessel, and in 
May, 1854, landed finally at Genoa. He went to 
his native Nice, where he had left his children; 
and next year, having received a small legacy 
from his brother, he bought a half of the island of 
Caprera, near La Maddalena, so that he might live 
there a life of freedom and independence. He 
awaited with confidence the events that were soon 
to call him back to the battle-field. 



210 Cavour 

By now Cavour's policy seemed clear to all. 
The man who at that time made the most lucid 
explanation of it was its determined opponent, 
the reactionary Count Solaro della Margherita. 
At the sitting of the Chamber on January 14, 
1856, he declared explicitly: 

The aim of Italian unity is not hidden among the 
secrets of the Cabinet. It shines out, clear as the 
light of day, from the tangle of affairs; so that, in 
speaking of it, I am not raising the veil from a mystery 
■ — and if such it were I ought to lift the veil and give 
warning of those rash and uncalled-for aspirations. 
It is of no use to say to the Italian Courts: "We 
are doing no injury; we are undertaking, and will 
undertake, nothing that is contrary to justice." 
The press gives the lie to that statement. . . . There 
may be a desire to restrain it within the bounds of 
prudence, but it breaks forth, and strives and toils 
to keep alive among the peoples the idea of Italian 
unity — worse still, to excite in men's minds a hatred 
of the governments by criticism of their forms and 
acts, by denouncing as tyrants the mildest and most 
just of sovereigns, applauding the hopes of their 
enemies, and pointing to Piedmont as the centre of 
their hopes and the country to which all should look 
who dream of new changes and fresh revolutions. 
Proof of what I have asserted is found in the fraternal 
welcome given to those who, regarded as enemies 
by the governments of Italy, take refuge in this free 
country. . . . My statement is confirmed by that 
memorial erected beneath the arches of the Turin 
Town Hall — a memorial not so much to the brave 



As Prime Minister 211 

Tuscan soldiers killed in battle (whose memory is 
imperishable) as to the idea itself of Italian unity.* 

Having thus outlined Cavour's programme, the 
old minister of Charles Albert proceeded to 
criticize it. 

, To cherish this idea, Gentlemen, is to feed your- 
selves on air, to make yourselves odious to the govern- 
ments of Italy, and to lose the confidence of all the 
Powers of Europe. . . . The unity of Italy could be 
brought about only by subjecting the whole peninsula 
to the dominion of the Roman Pontiff, or else by 
taking from the Pontiff the temporal rule of his own 
States. The first method is far from the desires, and 
does not enter into the calculations, of the present 
advocates of Italian unity. . . . The second method 
is ludicrous — the idea of a Pope who may bless and 
pray but do nothing else! Therefore, if the audacity 
to attempt it is not lacking, the force to accomplish it 
will never be found. What we desire is not the fury of 
sects or the explosion of discords and factions in order 
to raze that edifice which, though so many times 
assailed, is still the glory and the ornament of this 
fortunate peninsula. I know not whether it may be 
reserved for future ages to suffer so great an injury, 
though I hope God will never permit it; but I know 
well that in our age we devoted adherents of the Holy 

» The Grand Duke had removed from the Santa Croce Church 
in Florence the tablets placed there in honour of the Tuscans who 
had died during the war of '48 ; later new tablets were made by- 
means of secret offerings, and sent to the city authorities of 
Turin, who with exquisite sentiment as Italians, placed them in 
the Portico of the municipal palace. 



212 Cavour 

See have no need to fear it, nor can the Pope's ad- 
versaries flatter themselves that they are able to 
bring it about. 

With this firm assertion, the Count Solaro della 
Margherita ended his speech. Less than fifteen 
years were to pass before the disaster which was 
"not to be feared in that age " was an accomplished 
fact. 



» 



XII 



THE ITALIAN QUESTION AT THE CONGRESS OF PARIS, 
AND ITS RESULTS 

Vittorio, Vittorio! Tu, giovine Anteo, 
Per questa dolente, nel fiero torneo, 
La lancia suprema sei nato a sprezzar. 

Raccolta dal campo fatal di No vara, 
La mesta corona, dei morti sull' ara, 
Di tanto suo lutto la dhi vendicar. 

Giovanni Prati (1815-84): Opere, vol. v.' 

'Victor, Victor! Youthful Antasus! You are born to break, for this 
country of woe, the decisive lance in the fierce tournament. The crown 
that you took from Novara's fateful field, from the slain upon the altar, is 
heavy with mourning. It behoves you to avenge it of its sorrow. 



213 



CHAPTER XII 

THE ITALIAN QUESTION AT THE CONGRESS OF PARIS, 
AND ITS RESULTS 

Cavour at the Congress of Paris — Discussion of the Italian 
question; Buol and Cavour — Cavour's bold words in the 
Subalpine Parliament — The National Society; concentration 
of Italian life in Piedmont — France and England break off 
diplomatic relations with Naples — Change of Austrian 
policy in Lombardy-Venetia; rupture of diplomatic relations 
between Piedmont and Austria — The unfortunate Mazzinist 
expedition to Sapri — Universal confidence in Cavour; 
his habits of life and work. 

KING Victor Emmanuel and Cavour hoped to 
see the Crimean war continued and the 
sphere of operations enlarged. But it was just 
the fear of such a contingency that induced 
Austria to mediate, and to compel Russia to 
accept her proposals of peace. Piedmont was, of 
course, obliged to fall in with the wishes of the 
Greater Powers. It was decided to hold a Con- 
gress at Paris in order to settle the articles of 
peace. Cavour, seeing the important part that 
Austria had now assumed in the mediation, ex- 
pected no advantage for Piedmont, and it was with 
a good deal of resentment that he went to the 
215 



21 6 Cavour 

Congress. In that assembly of diplomatists he 
represented the smallest State. He maintained, 
therefore, an attitude of great modesty and reserve 
on questions that did not directly interest him, and 
sought merely to gain the sympathies of his col- 
leagues. But, outside the Congress, he worked 
with prodigious activity to create an atmosphere 
favourable to the Italian cause. 

Napoleon III. desired to procure some positive 
advantage for Victor Emmanuel — such as the 
acquisition of Parma and Modena, whose Dukes 
might have been compensated with Danubian 
principalities. But the schemes that he suggested 
required the consent of Austria, and Austria would 
not listen to them. Moreover, the Emperor was 
anxious not to offend the Pope, whom he desired 
as Godfather to the Prince whose birth was soon 
to be expected. "The devil," said Cavour, 
writing on March 4, 1856, to the Count Francesco 
Arese, "has brought it about that the Empress 
should desire the Pope as Godfather for her unborn 
child. This has gone far towards wrecking my 
original plan. I have devised another, but I know 
not how it will turn out." 

Unable to secure any territorial gains for the 
King of Sardinia, Napoleon III. wished to give 
him at least a moral solatium, and he directed his 
Foreign Minister, Walewski, who presided over 
the Congress, to raise the Italian question. On 
April 8th, after the conditions of peace in the East 
had been discussed but before the sittings came to 



THE MONUMENT TO CARLO ALBERTO 
By Marocchetti, Turin 
From a photo by Brogi 



Italian Question at Congress of Paris 217 

a close, Walewski rose to say that in order to 
consolidate the work accomplished it was necessary 
to take preventive measures against other com- 
plications that might arise. He hinted at the 
abnormal position of the Papal States, the North- 
em provinces of which were garrisoned by the 
Austrians, while French troops remained in the 
capital; and he went on to censure the atrocious 
government of the King of the Two Sicilies. He 
was followed by the English Minister, Clarendon, 
who brought a fierce indictment against the govern- 
ments of Rome and Naples — the worst, he said, 
that had ever existed. Count Buol, the repre- 
sentative of Austria, objected that the plenipo- 
tentiaries had no mandate to discuss any but 
Eastern affairs, and that they had not been called 
together to tell independent sovereigns what they 
thought of the internal organization of their 
States. He felt it his duty, therefore, to refrain 
from participation in any such discussion. 

Cavour, with well-calculated moderation, ac- 
knowledged the right of every plenipotentiary to 
abstain from discussing a question for which no 
provision was made in his instructions. But he 
added that he felt bound to bring under the notice 
of the Congress the difficult situation of Piedmont. 
Around herself she saw, in the rest of the penin- 
sula, the peoples kept in a permanent condition 
of revolutionary disqiiiet by the reactionary and 
violent operations of bad governments. And, 
on the other hand, she felt herself threatened by 



2i8 Cavour 

Austria, who having been invited by the sovereigns 
of the smaller States of Italy to hold their subjects 
in obedience, had made a military occupation of 
a great part of the peninsula, advancing as far as 
Ancona on one side and Piacenza on the other, 
and thereby destroying the balance between the 
various Italian States. 

It was a very stormy meeting (much more so 
than appears from the published minutes), but 
it ended in a declaration that the Austrian pleni- 
potentiaries associated themselves with those of 
France in expressing a view that the Austrian and^ 
French garrisons should withdraw from the Roman 
State as soon as that step could be taken without 
danger to the Papal sovereignty; and that the 
majority of the plenipotentiaries recognized that 
it would be well to introduce a milder system into 
the Italian governments, and especially, into the 
government of the Two Sicilies. 

Before leaving Paris, Cavour delivered to 
Count Walewski and Lord Clarendon a memorial 
in which, after recording that Austria's opposition 
had made it impossible to relieve in the least degree 
the ills of Italy, he again called the attention of 
France and England to the peril incurred by the 
Kingdom of Sardinia— the one Italian State 
which had set up an insuperable barrier against 
the revolutionary spirit, and had at the same time 
succeeded in remaining independent of Austria 
and in acting as a counterpoise to her aggressive 
influence. 



f 



Italian Question at Congress of Paris 219 

Thus much of the part which Cavour had 
played at Paris was at once made known to the 
public through the newspapers. But, in private col- 
loquies with Napoleon III. and Lord Clarendon, 
he persuaded them that the Italian question 
could be solved only by war with Austria; and 
th^ for Piedmont no course was left but one of 
preparation iqr such an event. From both of 
them he obtained warm promises. Lord Claren- 
don's words as to English participation were so 
explicit that, before returning to Turin, Cavour, 
with Napoleon III.'s concurrence, went to London 
to assure himself of the intentions of the English 
government. But he found that the English Cabi- 
net was indisposed to interfere. It was necessary, 
he saw, to rely on the French alliance. 

In the Museum at Versailles there is an enor- 
mous picture by Dubufe which represents the 
last sitting of the Congress of Paris. Among the 
diplomatists there, let us fix our attention in 
particular upon the representatives of Austria 
and Piedmont. Count Buol, vain beyond measure, 
considers himself greatly superior to his colleagues. 
Bismarck, who had opportimities of studying him 
closely, said : " I should like to be, for just one hour 
of my life, the great man that the Count von Buol 
believes himself to be always; my glory would be 
assured before God and man." Buol seems satis- 
fied with his work, but his gaze is turned upon 
Cavour, who, inconspicuously attired in black, 



220 Cavoui 

with his neck imprisoned in an enormous cravat, 
stands modestly in a corner, though through his 
spectacles his bright eyes gleam with pleasure and 
malice. He is hardly in the pictiu-e. But soon 
he will occupy the most prominent place on the 
stage of European politics. He sees clearly and 
far, and when he is signing the peace of the East 
he has already sown the dragon's teeth for the new 
war. 

On his return to Piedmont he inaugurated a new 
phase, bolder and more resolute, of Piedmontese 
policy. In a memorable speech to the Chamber 
on May 6, 1856, after saying that "great solutions 
are not made with the pen ; diplomacy is powerless 
to change the conditions of the peoples," he pro- 
ceeded : 

As to the Italian question, it is true that great 
positive results have not been reached. Neverthe- 
less, in my opinion, two benefits are gained. First, 
the anomalous and unhappy condition of Italy has 
been exposed to the view of Europe — and that not 
by demagogues, or excited revolutionaries, or im- 
passioned journalists, or partisans, but by representa- 
tives of the first Powers of Europe, by statesmen who 
stand at the head of their governments, by dis- 
tinguished men much more accustomed to listen to 
the voice of reason than to follow the impulses of the 
heart. That is the first result, and I regard it as of 
very great utility. The second is that those same 
Powers have declared that it is necessary, in the 
interest not only of Italy, but of Europe, to apply 



Italian Question at Congress of Paris 221 

some remedy to Italy's ills. I cannot believe that 
the judgments expressed and the advice offered by 
such nations as France and England will long remain 
without fruit. Though on the one hand we have to 
congratulate ourselves on this result, on the other I 
certainly must recognize that it is not free from 
troubles and dangers. It is certain, Gentlemen, 
that the negotiations at Paris have not improved our 
relations with Austria. We must confess that the 
plenipotentiaries of Sardinia and those of Austria, 
after sitting for two months side by side, after co- 
operating in the greatest political work accomplished 
during the last forty years, have separated without 
personal collisions (for I ought here to testify to 
the generally courteous and becoming conduct of the 
head of the Austrian government), but with the 
secret conviction that the two countries are further 
than ever from agreement in policy, and that the 
principles which they respectively uphold are 
irreconcilable. 



These were serious words. The Austrian 
government protested against Piedmont's claim 
to speak in the name of Italy, and denounced the 
daring minister as a favourer of revolutions. 

It is true that Cavour desired, by speaking in 
so open a manner, to secure the sympathies of the 
patriots of the peninsula, and in that purpose he 
was completely successful. The Italians, schooled 
by their misfortunes to a riper judgment, came to 
understand that from Piedmont must be expected 
the signal of liberation. Testimonies to this 



222 Cavour 

opinion were not lacking. A bust of Cavour, 
bearing the Dantean line, Colui che la difese a 
viso aperto ("The man who boldly defended his 
country"), was sent to him from Tuscany; from 
the Papal States a gold medal, bearing as its motto 
the quotation from Petrarch, Che fan qui tante 
peregrine spade? ("What are so many foreign 
swords doing here?"). And in Lombardy money 
was collected for the purpose of erecting, at Turin, 
a statue to the Piedmontese army. 

In seeking the support of the patriots, Cavour 
thought at once of Garibaldi. On August 13, 
1856, he held his first colloquy with him and 
encouraged his daring hopes. At the same time 
George Pallavicino, the former prisoner of the 
Spielberg, and Joseph La Farina, a Sicilian exile, 
were founding, in Turin, the National Society, 
whose purpose was to spread through the penin- 
sula the idea, already put forward by Daniel 
Manin, that all should rally round Piedmont to 
achieve the great work of Italian liberation. 
From September, 1856, La Farina was in close 
commimication with Cavour, who secretly received 
him at his house before simrise. 

The attraction which the free institutions of 
Piedmont exercised over the rest of Italy increased 
day by day. The old emigrants, who had met 
with so much generous hospitality in Piedmont, 
were joined by others. They all found there a 
new fatherland in which they obtained offices, 
professorial chairs, even seats in Parliaraent. In 



Italian Question at Congress of Paris 223 

this way Piedmont was accomplishing that fusion 
of thoughts, hopes, and affections on which the 
future union of Italy was to rest. 

Meanwhile France and England, desiring some- 
how to enforce the views of the Congress of Paris 
as to Italian affairs, took diplomatic action towards 
the governments of Naples and Rome. 

During the Crimean war, King Ferdinand of 
Naples had repeatedly shown his sympathies with 
Russia and his aversion for the Western Powers. 
Hence these Powers wished to give him a lesson. 
They recommended him to modify his rule in a 
Liberal direction and to grant an amnesty to the 
political prisoners. Ferdinand 11. , sure of Austria's 
support, replied warmly that he did not tolerate 
the interference of other States in his domestic 
government. Diplomatic Notes of increasing 
asperity foUowed, until at last Napoleon III. 
decided to recall his ambassador from Naples 
(October, 1856). The Prince Lucien Murat (son 
of King Joachim and therefore cousin of Napoleon 
III.) was living in Paris at that time. Hoping to 
profit by the situation, and to push his own claims 
to the throne of Naples, he set conspiracies afoot 
with the object of inducing the Emperor to support 
him and of gaining partisans in the Neapolitan 
kingdom. Cavour feared that these Murattist 
plots were favoured by Napoleon III., and there- 
fore dared not openly oppose them. But in secret 
he warned the English government of the danger, 



224 Cavour 

and England, while still associating herself with 
Napoleon in the protests addressed to Ferdinand, 
determined to restrain the Emperor; she imitated 
him in breaking off diplomatic relations with 
Naples, but would go no farther. On the other 
hand, many Italian patriots, and especially Manin, 
set about an energetic opposition to the Murattist 
propaganda, which consequently attained no 
great proportions. 

On his side, Ferdinand II. pursued his reaction- 
ary and savage policy, which provoked a whole 
series of insurrections. In November, 1856, the 
young Baron Francesco Bentivegna collected 
some hundreds of armed men in Sicily, and oc- 
cupied a part of the Termini district ; but the royal 
troops soon scattered his followers, and he was 
arrested, led to Palermo, and shot. During a 
military review on December 8th of that year, 
a soldier, Agesilao Milano, flung himself on the 
King as he rode by, and aimed a blow at him with 
his fixed bayonet. The King, however, was but 
slightly wounded. Agesilao Milano, of course, 
was sent to execution. These attempts, in short, 
resulted only in fresh arrests and condemnations. 
As to the Pope, Napoleon III. had no intention 
of a serious breach with him ; moreover, his ambas- 
sador at Rome, Count de Rayneval, was quite 
devoted to Antonelli, and sent his government 
laudatory reports of the papal regime. Napoleon 
III. therefore confined himself to the making of 
certain recommendations which had no effect. 



Italian Question at Congress of Paris 225 

On the other hand, Austria, after the Congress 
of Paris, changed the system of government in 
the Itahan dominions. She removed the seques- 
trations of 1853, granted an amnesty to the 
poHtical prisoners, and remitted to the Communes 
a large part of the debts which they owed to the 
State. The Emperor Francis Joseph himself paid 
a visit to Venice and Milan, and in every way 
sought to gain the people's good-will. But on 
the very day of his state entry into Milan 
(January 15, 1857), the Turin newspapers an- 
nounced the gift, by the Milanese to Turin, of a 
monument in honour of the Piedmontese army; 
and the Turin Municipality not only accepted the 
gift but assigned to it a conspicuous position in 
the Piazza Castello, in front of the Palazzo Ma- 
dama, the seat of the Senate. The Piedmontese 
newspapers, too, speaking of the Emperor's 
journey, recalled the cruelties of the past, and one 
humorous journal, // Fischietto, published a design 
for a triumphal arch "spontaneously" erected 
by the Milanese in honour of the Emperor — ^on 
the frontal the two-headed eagle held instruments 
of torture in its talons, and dangling between the 
columns were the corpses of those who had been 
hanged after the last political trials. Entering 
his residence at Milan one evening, Francis Joseph 
found this design spread out on a table. 

The acceptance of the monument by the Muni- 
cipality of Turin, and the violent language of the 
Piedmontese newspapers, gave great offence to 



226 Cavour 

the Austrian government. Its resentment was 
expressed in a severe Note, which the Austrian 
charge d'affaires at Turin read to Cavour, with a 
request that action should be taken. Cavour 
answered that it was natural for the Italian pro- 
vinces to show gratitude to Piedmont for her 
defence of the Italian cause at the Congress of 
Paris. As to the press, it had freedom in Pied- 
mont, and only excesses could be restrained. It 
was his fixed intention to insist upon restraint — 
within the limits fixed by the laws. But on the 
other hand it was deplorable that in Austria, 
where the press could only say what pleased the 
government, Piedmont and Victor Emmanuel 
were at least as grossly insulted. In view of this 
bold attitude, Austria decided to break off all 
diplomatic relations with Piedmont, which, since 
1853, had been maintained by means of charges 
d'affaires only. 

At the same time, the Austrian government 
pursued the policy of caressing its Lombardo- 
Venetian subjects. The Emperor induced the 
old Marshal Radetzky to resign, and on February 
28, 1857, he appointed his brother, the Archduke 
Maximilian, who had a reputation for nobility 
of heart and breadth of culture, to the governor- 
ship of Lombardy-Venetia. Maximilian made a 
genuine attempt to win esteem and to rally round 
himself the people of greatest standing in Lom- 
bardy and Venetia, but, in spite of his good inten- 
tions, the results of his policy were very slight. 




PALAZZO CAVOUR, TURIN 

Where Cavour was born and died 

From a photograph 



Italian Question at Congress of Paris 227 

The citizens of Lombardy-Venetia showed that 
they held the position which had been already 
defined by Manin: "We do not desire that 
Austria should become more humane; we desire 
that she shoiild withdraw." The propaganda 
of the National Society had met with great success 
among them, and confidence in Piedmont was 
increasing daily. 

And Piedmont, under Cavour's wise direction, 
showed herself more and more worthy of this 
confidence. When the government resolved to 
strengthen the fortifications of Alessandria, La 
Gazzetta del Popolo of Turin, in order to show the 
general sentiment still more clearly, opened a 
subscription for the purpose of presenting a hund- 
red cannon to the fortress. Offerings came from 
all parts of Italy, and the project was speedily 
carried out amid general enthusiasm. Cavour 
ruled Piedmont as though she were already Italy. 
With his eye on the future, he created the strong 
naval port of Spezia. During the notable debate 
to which this plan. gave rise in the Chamber of 
Deputies, Count Solaro Delia Margherita, the 
famous representative of the reactionary party, 
called attention to "the strange behaviour of 
those ministers who were even then preparing 
to construct arsenals for the future Kingdom of 
Italy." Still more gigantic was the work of 
timnelling Mont Cenis, which Piedmont, with 
courage worthy of a greater State, began at her 
isole expense in that same year (1857), imder the 



228 Cavour 

direction of the engineers Sommeiller, Grandis 
and Grattoni. 

Mazzini maintained his disapproval of Pied- 
montese poHcy. He still trusted only in popular 
insurrections. Coming secretly to Genoa, he 
prepared an expedition against the King of Naples 
— in agreement with Carlo Pisacane, a daring Nea- 
politan emigrant who had already distinguished 
himself in the war of 1848 and in the defence 
of Rome in 1849. On the evening of June 25, 1857, 
Carlo Pisacane, with twenty-six courageous com- 
panions, embarked from Genoa on the CagUari, a 
steamship (belonging to the Rubattino Company) 
sailing for Tunis. When the open sea had been 
reached, these patriots forced the master to change 
his course, and sail for Neapolitan territory. They 
reached the island of Ponza, and liberated the 
prisoners who were in confinement there, and the 
next day they landed at Sapri, in the province of 
Salerno. But, instead of finding the help which 
they had expected, they met with a hostile recep- 
tion from the peasants, and soon afterwards were 
attacked by a strong body of royal militia. They 
fought like heroes, but Pisacane and nearly all 
his companions were killed. A little later the 
CagUari was captured at sea by a Neapolitan 
frigate and was taken to Naples, where master, sea- 
men and passengers were thrown into prison, and 
the vessel was regarded as a lawful prize. The 
Piedmontese government entered an energetic 



Italian Question at Congress of Paris 229 

protest, and the passengers were forthwith re- 
leased. As two engineers among the crew were 
EngHsh, Cavour solicited the co-operation of the 
English government in his protest, but it was only- 
after long negotiations that the Neapolitan govern- 
ment decided to restore the Cagliari and set the 
prisoners free. 

The unfortunate issue of the Sapri expedition 
alienated public opinion still more from Mazzini's 
methods; and, in the end, Cavour's programme 
was accepted by all the Liberals of the peninsula. 
All looked confidently to the great minister, and 
he, with his calm smile, made men feel that he was 
preparing and directing events. 

Cavour combined a happy disposition with 
prodigious activity. Amid the claims of the most 
serious affairs, he found time and means to occupy 
himself with small and quite different matters. 
He rose very early (about five o'clock), and de- 
voted the first hours of the morning to his cor- 
respondence and private affairs, and to any special 
interview that might be necessary. At nine 
o'clock he breakfasted lightly on two eggs and 
a cup of tea; then he walked to the Ministry — 
saluted by all, and greeting everybody in his 
cheerful, familiar way. At the Ministry he trans- 
acted the business of the day, and held the 
official receptions ; next, he went the round of the 
offices, giving direct orders to the staff; and after- 
wards proceeded to the Chamber or the King's 
audience. Returning home, he gladly lingered a 



230 Cavour 

little to chat with his niece, the Countess Alfieri. 
At six o'clock he dined with his brother, the Mar- 
quis Gustavo, with whom he remained always on 
the best of terms, although his brother held views 
very different from his own, especially on religion, 
and in the Chamber often voted with the Clerical 
party. After dinner he withdrew to his study, 
settled himself on a sofa, smoked a cigarette, and 
slept a little. Then he resumed his work — except 
on the few occasions on which he went into society 
or attended the theatre. Invariably he retired to 
rest before midnight. 

Thus, by a regular distribution of his time, he 
succeeded in discharging an infinite variety of 
duties. He had, too, a marked facility in turning 
from one occupation to another, and a readiness 
of mind that enabled him to employ usefully even 
a few moments' interval between one task and 
the next. 

Even when his political anxieties were most 
acute, he wrote many letters with his own hand, 
on the most varied subjects and to all sorts of corre- 
spondents. More than three thousand five hund- 
red of them are included in the various collections 
hitherto published. The language is wanting in 
purity and elegance — occasionally even in gram- 
matical accuracy. Yet the letters are read with 
the deepest interest, for in them is seen the whole 
man — ^not merely the high intellect and the strong 
will, but the admirable disposition, open and 
expansive; the sincere and generous heart, which 



Italian Question at Congress of Paris 231 

sometimes kindles into passion, but always in 
zeal for the public welfare, and without a trace of 
personal motives. 

The nine years of his ministry were nine years 
of a life dedicated to his country day by day, hour 
by hour. One might almost say they were multi- 
plied by his deliberate but self-sacrificing habit 
of overwork. And amid the gravest difficulties, 
and in the most troublous times, he still preserved 
an abundant, contagious confidence, which stimu- 
lated his fellow-workers to redoubled exertions. 



XIII 

THE MEETING OF PLOMBI^RES 

Flash in God's justice to the world's amaze, 

Sublime Deliverer! — after many days 

Found worthy of the deed thou art come to do — 

Emperor 

Evermore. 

But Italy, my Italy, 

Can it last, this gleam? 
Can she live and be strong. 
Or is it another dream 
Like the rest we have dreamed so long? 
Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Napoleon III. in Italy. 



233 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE MEETING OF PLOMBIl^RES 

Napoleon III. and the principle of nationality — The Orsini plot 
— Cavour's speech to the Chamber — Cavour at Plombieres 
(July, 1858); verbal compact with Napoleon III. — Cavour's 
colloquy with Garibaldi — Preparations for war. 

NAPOLEON III. is one of the most interesting 
figures in the history of the nineteenth 
century, by reason not only of the extraordinary 
vicissitudes of his Hfe, but also of the ideas that he 
championed. Born in 1808, just when the em- 
pire of Napoleon I. was touching its zenith, he 
was still a young child when, after Waterloo, he 
was obliged to go into exile from France. During 
that life of banishment, spent in company with 
his mother Hortense, he conceived a passion for 
the records of his uncle's glory. Going into Italy, 
he shared with enthusiasm in the Romagna revolu- 
tion of 1 83 1. After the death of the Duke of 
Reichstadt he adopted the role of a pretender, 
and made two vain attempts to overthrow Louis 
Philippe's throne. But even in the prison of Ham 
he continued to educate himself for a public career, 
for he held a fatalistic belief that some day he 
235 



236 Cavour 

must take up and pursue the work of Napoleon I. 
The Republic of 1848 gave him the opportunity 
of sitting in the Assembly, among the representa- 
tives of the nation, until the magic name he bore, 
and his own and his friends' devices, raised him 
to the Presidency and thence to the Emperor's 
throne. He arrived there with an imposing 
programme of foreign policy. He had realized 
that the principle which was destined to triumph 
in his age was the principle of nationality, and he 
had convinced himself that France, by making 
herself its champion, might give an era of peace 
to Europe, acquire preponderant power, and 
perhaps extend her territory to the Alps and the 
Rhine, which she coveted as her natural bounda- 
ries. These his political convictions induced him 
to favour the revival of the Italian nation, for 
which he felt also a personal predilection, inspired 
by the memories of his youth. 

But his high designs were not matched by cour- 
age in executing them. In that man of the olive 
complexion and the furtive glance there were 
strange contradictions of strength and weakness, 
tenacity and irresolution, intellectual clearness 
and obscurities of conscience. His policy moved 
by leaps, and it was full of sudden, unexpected 
changes. In general, one may say that it was 
nearly always the force of circumstances which 
drove him to express, in action, the ideas that 
slumbered in the depth of his mind. 

As long ago as December, 1855, he had asked 



The Meeting of Plombi^res 237 

Cavour what he could do for Italy. But after- 
wards, in order to avoid too violent a collision 
with Austria and the Pope, he had sought to calm 
the bold impatience of the Piedmontese minister. 
Little by little, however, Cavour was able to 
inspire him with confidence, and to fix his thoughts 
on the necessity of war with Austria; he was the 
tempter of genius, who irresistibly urged the 
Emperor forward. 

Alliance with France had become Piedmont's 
only hope, for, after the Congress of Paris, Eng- 
land seemed to desire a good understanding with 
Austria. Cavour was working actively to secure 
the alliance with the Emperor, when there occurred 
(January, 1858) the murderous outrage committed 
by Felice Orsini, an Italian patriot and former 
member of the Roman Assembly. It seemed that 
this would inevitably check the good intentions 
of Napoleon III. with regard to the Italian cause; 
instead, through the strange complexity of his 
romantic temperament, it had the opposite effect. 
From prison, Orsini wrote him a truly noble appeal 
on behalf of Italy. The words of the intrepid 
conspirator made a profound impression on the 
mind of Napoleon III., whose youth was passed 
among Italian plotters. He allowed Orsini's 
letter to be printed; it was a good sign. Cavour, 
on his part, knew how to turn the situation to 
advantage. He made the Emperor understand 
that it was by this time impossible to prevent 
the outbreak of insurrections in the peninsula, 



238 Cavour 

unless some satisfaction were given to public 
opinion; that the revolutionaries attributed to 
Napoleon III. a great part of the ills of the penin- 
sula, and were so numerous and so bold that fresh 
outrages were inevitable; and that he ought, by- 
some action favourable to Italy, to wipe out the 
memory of the French expedition of 1849 against 
the Roman Republic. 

Napoleon III., in fact, was at that time thor- 
oughly hated by the Italian Liberals, so that an- 
other difficulty arose for Cavour — the difficulty 
of persuading the Liberals of the advantage of 
the French alliance. It was the greater because 
many feared that France might afterwards acquire 
an undue influence in the peninsula. Cavour 
understood this risk very clearly. But he had 
no great choice of means; and on the other hand 
he was confident that if it so happened he could 
apply a remedy with England's aid. 

He pursued his plan, therefore, of gaining the 
French alliance, and on April 16, 1858, he ventured 
to announce openly in Parliament the political 
situation that he wished to bring about : 



It was impossible that we should remain faithful 
to the aspirations of King Charles Albert, who desired 
to preserve a Liberal and Italian policy, without 
provoking against us the resentment of any Powers 
which have, in Italy, interests different from our own. 
... I do not disguise from myself the fact that this 
constitutes a grave position — one which ought seri- 



The Meeting of Plombi^res 239 

ously to occupy the mind of the government and of 
the nation. And in truth, Gentlemen, when we 
compare our material resources with those of the 
Powers to which I was just now referring, we cannot 
regard our condition as free from peril. . . . How 
are we to avoid this peril, or to prepare for it? We 
have tried to solve that problem by the system of 
alliances — by seeking to form, maintain, and extend 
alliances with Western Powers that had no interests 
hostile to our own in Italy. . . . Though political 
questions are discussed by means of diplomacy in 
Notes, protocols and memoranda with legal argu- 
ments, they are decided afterwards on the battle-field 
by the battalions and squadrons of the different 
Powers. And although, in this. Fortune does not 
always favour rigorous justice, she is still, as in the 
time of Frederick the Great, the friend of big bat- 
talions. When a nation is unable to put a large army 
into the field, it must seek to gain, in its need, the 
support of the big battalions of its friends and allies. 



Towards the end of May, 1858, Napoleon III. 
sent secretly, to Turin, Dr. Conneau, his physician 
and friend, of whose services he sometimes availed 
himself in order to carry on diplomatic negotia- 
tions without the knowledge of his Foreign 
Minister. Conneau invited Cavour to meet the 
Emperor when his Majesty went to take the waters 
at Plombieres, in the Department of the Vosges, 

Cavour reached Plombieres on the evening of 
July 20th, and next morning he was received by 



240 Cavour 

Napoleon III. The Emperor opened that famous 
colloquy by declaring that he had decided to help 
Piedmont to fight Austria, provided the war 
should be undertaken for a cause that was not 
revolutionary, and was capable of justification 
in the eyes of diplomatists, and especially of public 
opinion in France and in Europe generally. The 
two statesmen set themselves to examine together 
the conditions of the States of Italy in order to 
find this cause of war, and in the end agreed that 
the condition of the inhabitants of Massa and Car- 
rara, who were impatient of the Duke of Modena's 
oppression, would furnish the desired pretext. 
These sufferers were to be incited to invoke the 
protection of Victor Emmanuel; the King of 
Sardinia would write a severe Note to the Duke of 
Modena, who, strong in the support of Austria, 
would certainly make an insolent reply; Victor 
Emmanuel would then occupy Massa, and so the 
war would begin. 

Before going further, the Emperor wished to 
find a solution of his difficulties regarding the 
Pope and the King of Naples, towards whom he 
was anxious to show consideration in order to 
avoid a rupttue with the Catholics of France, and 
to preserve the sympathy of the Czar, who made 
it almost a point of honour to protect the King 
of Naples. Cavour desired to simplify matters, 
and moreover was convinced that the expulsion 
of the Austrians from Italy would solve all other 
Italian problems. He answered that the Emperor 




^Mfteiii 







VICTOR EMMANUEL tl. 
From a contemporary print 



The Meeting of Plombieres 241 

could keep the Pope in peaceful possession of Rome 
by means of the French garrison, which had 
remained there since 1849, but that he should 
allow Romagna, occupied by the Austrians, to 
revolt. As to the King of Naples, unless he took 
Austria's part it was unnecessary to trouble about 
him, beyond leaving his subjects (if they profited 
by the occasion) to rid themselves of his hereditary 
domination. 

This reply satisfied the Emperor; he was content 
then to discuss the scope of the war. The Emperor 
admitted without difficulty that it was necessary 
to drive out the Austrians entirely from Italy — 
to leave them not a hand's breadth of territory 
on the Italian side of the Alps and the Isonzo. 
After long discussion, the establishment of a 
Kingdom of Upper Italy (including Romagna) 
under Victor Emmanuel, and the cession of Savoy 
CO France, were arranged in general terms. The 
question of Nice was left undecided, for Cavour 
pointed out that its annexation by France would 
be contrary to that principle of nationality for 
which the war was to be fought. 

Passing next to examine the means to be em- 
ployed, the Emperor said it was necessary to isolate 
Austria, and that he felt sure of the good-will of 
Russia and the neutrality of England and Prussia. 
However, he did not deceive himself as to the 
enormous military resources of Austria, and her 
tenacity. To force her to renounce Italy it was 
necessary to advance upon Vienna, and, therefore, 



242 Cavour 

at least three hundred thousand men would be 
required. He was prepared to send two hundred 
thousand, and he asked for a hundred thousand 
Italians. 

This conversation lasted from eleven o'clock 
in the morning till three in the afternoon. The 
Emperor then invited Cavour to return at four 
o'clock, so that they might take a drive together 
in his carriage. At the appointed hour, Napoleon 
III. and Cavour took their seats in a handsome 
phaeton, drawn by American horses and driven 
by the Emperor himself. A single servant accom- 
panied them. As soon as they had left the streets 
of Plombieres, the Emperor turned the conversa- 
tion to the subject of a marriage between Prince 
Jerome Napoleon and the Princess Clotilde, -eldest 
daughter of Victor Emmanuel. Cavour knew 
that the King was unwilling to be separated so soon 
from his daughter, of whom he was very fond, who 
was not yet sixteen years old, and who had already 
suffered, four years before, the grievous loss of her 
mother. And he knew how repugnant to the 
King would be the idea of giving her in marriage 
to Prince Napoleon, who, though a cousin of the 
Emperor, did not belong to one of the old princely 
families of Europe, was reputed to be a sceptic 
and a libertine, and was already thirty-seven 
years old. Cavour therefore made no under- 
taking. But during their three hours' drive 
through the forests of the Vosges, he was con- 
vinced that the Emperor attached very great 




PRINCE NAPOLEON 
From a contemporary print 



The Meeting of Plombieres 243 

importance to this part of the project. Writing 
to Victor Emmanuel, he tried to persuade him of 
the necessity of such a sacrifice. The Prince, he 
said, was better than his reputation. Moreover, 
history showed us that a very sad existence was 
the lot of princesses, even when their marriages 
took place in accordance with the proprieties and 
with established custom. He cited for example 
the unhappy fate of the four daughters of Victor 
Emmanuel I.: 

The eldest (and she was the happiest) married the 
Duke of Modena, Francis tV., and has associated 
her name with that of a universally detested Prince. 
Truly your Majesty would not consent to such a 
marriage for your daughter. The second has es- 
poused the Duke of Lucca, Charles Louis of Bourbon. 
It is unnecessary for me to recall the result of that 
marriage. The Duchess of Lucca was, and is, as 
unhappy as it is possible to be in this world. It is 
true that Victor Emmanuel's third daughter ascended 
the throne of the Csesars — 'but it was in order to be 
united to an impotent and imbecile husband (Ferdi- 
nand I.), who was obliged, after a few years, to de- 
scend it ignominiously. Lastly, the fourth, the 
charming and excellent Princess Christina, married 
the King of Naples. Your Majesty knows well the 
harsh treatment to which she was exposed, and the 
sorrows that led her to the tomb with the reputation 
of a saint and a martyr. 

In the profound conviction that this marriage 
was absolutely necessary to secure the success of 



244 Cavour 

the alliance which he had concluded, Cavour 
wrote forthwith to General La Marmora, in order 
to enlist his influence with the King. 

It would be a mistake, a very grave mistake, to be 
joined with the Emperor and at the same t me to 
offend him in a way that he would never forget. It 
would be extremely dangerous to have on our side, 
and in the heart of our councils, an implacable enemy 
— all the more to be feared since Corsican blood flows 
in his veins. I have written warmly to the King, 
begging him not to risk the finest enterprise of modern 
times for some scruples of rank aristocratic prejudice. 
I pray you, when he consults you, add your voice to 
mine. Either let us not attempt this undertaking, 
in which the crown of our King and the fate of our 
people are put in jeopardy; or, if we do attempt it, 
then for the love of Heaven let nothing be neglected 
that can secure our ultimate success in the struggle. 

These letters are dated from Baden, whither, 
after the meeting of Plombieres, Cavour went to 
speak with the large number of Russian and Ger- 
man princes and diplomatists who were there 
for the waters. In less than twenty-four hours he 
had opportunity to converse with many of them, 
and he formed the conviction that Austria would 
be left alone in the struggle. Returning to Italy 
full of hope, the great minister sent for Garibaldi 
and told him to hold himself in readiness. Gari- 
baldi, of course, welcomed the invitation with 
enthusiasm, and gave instructions to his most 



The Meeting of Plombieres 245 

intimate friends for the organization of a corps of 
volunteers. 



Although the agreement of Plombieres was kept 
so secret that Napoleon III. did not even communi- 
cate it to his own Foreign Minister, acute anxiety 
was soon observed in the diplomatic world, for 
Cavour had every interest in troubling the waters. 
In December, 1858, Mr. Odo Russell, the distin- 
guished English diplomatist, who was passing 
through Turin, had a conversation with Cavour, 
which he afterwards described in these terms : ' 

Cavour said to me that I might look forward to an 
interesting winter, as he was about to reopen the 
Italian question and free Italy from the Austrian yoke. 
On my observing that Austria had but to play awaiting 
game to exhaust the already heavily taxed military 
resources of Piedmont, and that a declaration of war 
by Piedmont would enlist the sympathies of Europe 
in favour of Austria rather than of Italy, he replied 
that he fully agreed with me; but that if, on the 
contrary, Austria declared war against Piedmont, then 
public opinion would side with Italy and support the 
cause of the weak and oppressed against the strong. 
On my saying that Austria was scarcely capable of 
committing so egregious a mistake, Cavour replied: 
"But I shall force her to declare war against us." 
I confess I felt incredulous, but asked when he ex- 
pected to accomplish so great a wonder of diplomacy. 
"About the first week in May," was his reply. On 
. * The Quarterly Review, July, 1879, p. 129. 



246 Cavour 

leaving Cavour I took a note of our conversation. 
Great was the surprise of Europe when Austria 
declared war against Piedmont a few days before the 
time he had specified. 

The old Prince Mettemich was right when he 
remarked at that time: "There is only one diplo- 
matist left in Europe, and he, unfortunately, is 
against us; I mean Count Cavour." 




GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI AS A PIEDMONTESE GENERAL 
From a contemporary print, 1859 



XIV 

''an interesting winter" 

Shout for the head of Cavour; 
And shout for the heart of a King 
That 's great with a nation's joy ! 

Shout for France and Savoy ! 
Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Napoleon III. in Italy, 



247 



CHAPTER XIV 



AN INTERESTING WINTER 



Victor Emmanuel and "the cry of woe" — Marriage of the Prin- 
cess Clotilde with Prince Napoleon — Armaments of Austria 
and Piedmont — The exertions of diplomacy, and Napoleon 
III.'s wavering attitude — Bellicose tendencies of the Court 
of Vienna — Cavour's skilful efforts — A tragical moment — 
Austria's ultimatum and the outbreak of the war — Pro- 
clamations by Victor Emmanuel and Francis Joseph. 

THE "interesting winter" foretold by Cavour 
to Odo Russell opened with the well-known 
words of Napoleon III. at his reception on New 
Year's Day, 1859. Turning to the Austrian 
ambassador he said: "I regret that our relations 
with your government are not so good as they 
were; but tell your Sovereign that my feelings 
towards him have not changed. ' ' There is, indeed, 
no threat in these words. In normal circumstances 
they might very well have been interpreted as a 
personal affirmation of conciliatory sentiments, 
and it was perhaps with such an intention that 
the Emperor used them, if we are to believe what 
he afterwards wrote to Queen Victoria. Instead, 
they created an enormous sensation, and were 
generally interpreted as the prelude of war — 
249 



250 Cavour 

perhaps because the diplomatic world was greatly 
agitated, perhaps because the Sovereign who had 
pronounced them was regarded as a Sphinx. 

The speech that was to be made by King Victor 
Emmanuel II. at the reopening of Parliament on 
January loth was awaited, therefore, with great 
excitement, and the assembly -hall of the Madama 
Palace presented on that day a most imposing 
spectacle. Victor Emmanuel delivered his memor- 
able utterance with striking vigour and emphasis : 

Encouraged by the experience of the past, we face 
the eventualities of the future with resolution. That 
future will be happy ; for we base our policy on justice, 
on the love of liberty and of the fatherland. Our 
country, small in extent, has acquired credit in the 
Councils of Europe because it is great in virtue of 
the ideas which it represents and the sympathies 
which it inspires. This condition is not free from 
perils, since, while we respect the treaties, we are not 
insensible to the cry of woe that comes to us from so 
many parts of Italy. Strong in concord, trusting 
in the justice of our cause, we await with prudence 
yet determination the decrees of Divine Providence. 

These words made a tremendous impression. 
Joseph Massari, the distinguished Neapolitan 
author, who was present, wrote: 

Senators, deputies, spectators sprang to their feet 
and broke forth in deafening cheers. The ministers 
of France, Prussia and England gazed in astonish- 



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"An Interesting Winter" 251 

ment and emotion at that wonderful sight. A gloomy 
pallor spread over the face of the Neapolitan charge 
d' affaires. We, poor exiles, did not even attempt to 
wipe away the tears that flowed in streams from our 
eyes and would not be restrained; and we applauded 
frantically that King who was thinking of our sorrows 
and was promising to give us a native land. 

As he returned to his palace that day, amid 
enthusiastic ovations, Victor Emmanuel must 
surely have recalled how, ten years before, when 
he presented himself for the first time before Par- 
liament, in the same Madama Palace, to swear that 
he would keep the Constitution, he was received 
with a silence so distrustful and hostile that he 
nearly burst into tears of sorrow and rage. By 
his power of reading the times, by making himself 
the true interpreter of national sentiment, he had 
overcome that hostility; he had felt the country 
attach itself with increasing trust to his throne; 
and now the warmth of popular enthusiasm came 
to recompense him for the mortifications which 
he had suffered and the difficulties that he had 
surmounted. He faced all the perils of the situa- 
tion with courage and with ardour. "Next year 
I shall be either King of Italy or merely M. de 
Savoie." 

Persuaded by the political considerations which 
his great minister laid before him, Victor Em- 
manuel had even consented to the marriage of 
his daughter Clotilde. Prince Jerome Napoleon 
reached Turin on January i6th, and two days later 



252 Cavour 

signed, on the Emperor's behalf, a treaty embody- 
ing the verbal agreements of Plombieres. On 
the 23d, in receiving the deputations that came 
from the Chamber and Senate to present their 
reply to the royal speech, Victor Emmanuel gave 
official notice of the approaching marriage. It 
was solemnized on January 30th. 

The Princess Clotilde certainly experienced 
great bitterness at the court of the Tuileries, owing 
to the impropriety of her consort's behaviour and 
the ill-concealed hostility of the Empress Eugenie. 
In the course of time she concentrated her care 
on works of piety and the education of her child- 
ren.^ But although this marriage was none too 
happy for her, it had joyous consequences for 
Italy. For Jerome Napoleon, having thus become 
a near relative of the House of Savoy, showed 
himself on many occasions a firm friend of the 
peninsula. Endowed with a keen intellect and 
possessed of wide culture, he was able to main- 
tain the Italian cause with warmth and effective- 
ness against the intrigues of the Clerical party 
and of the Empress herself. 

In view of the attitude taken by Piedmont and 
France, Austria felt it necessary to assume a 
posture of defence ; she sent a new army-corps into 

'Left a widow in 1891, the Princess Clotilde settled at the 
Castle of Moncalieri, near Turin, and there she died in 191 1. 
She had three children: Victor, bom in 1862; Louis, bom in 1864; 
and Lastitia, bom in 1866. 




PRINCESS CLOTILDE 
From a painting by Herbert 



"An Interesting Winter" 253 

Italy and stationed it on the Piedmontese frontier. 
Cavour thereupon moved more boldly. He pro- 
cured from Parliament a vote of fifty million lire 
for extraordinary expenditure, and he invited 
Garibaldi to organize his corps of volunteers, to 
whom the name Cacciatori delle Alpi was given. 
He wished to stamp the war with a national char- 
acter, and therefore he worked in secret (especially 
by means of the National Society) to collect volun- 
teers in Piedmont from every part of the peninsula. 
It was a striking and significant spectacle — the 
sight of so great a nimiber of young men braving 
a thousand perils in order to go from their several 
States to Piedmont and take up arms against the 
foreigner. But the organization of these troops 
was involved in many complications. The pro- 
fessional soldiers and the bureaucracy were op- 
posed to them; every moment some article of the 
regulations was brought up as an obstacle; at 
last Cavour personally undertook the task, and 
the volimteers were organized by the Ministry 
of the Interior. 

But foreign politics gave him other and much 
more serious preoccupations. By the treaty con- 
cluded with Napoleon III. it was established that 
France should only come to the aid of Pied- 
mont if she were attacked by Austria. Hence 
Cavour was forced to employ every means of pro- 
vocation. On the other hand public opinion in 
France was unfavourable to war; in the Imperial 
Court itself the opposition party was very power- 



254 Cavour 

ful; and the Emperor, always a little unstable of 
character, was seen to be wavering. 

The English government, which was at that 
time in the hands of the Conservatives^ and in 
close relations with Austria, tried to take advan- 
tage of this situation and to prevent the outbreak 
of war. Acting under instructions from his 
government, Lord Cowley, the English ambassador 
at Paris, went to Vienna and attempted to heal 
the breach between France and Austria. Napo- 
leon III. was unwilling to offend England, so he 
feigned submission to the pressure of the English 
government. Austria put little trust in pacific 
treaties, and, while discussing the bases of agree- 
ment, pushed on her military preparations. 
Cavour cleverly seized the opportunity which 
these preparations afforded him. On March 8th, 
declaring that he could not leave the country 
defenceless against the menaces of Austria, he 
issued a decree summoning the contingents to arms. 
By this time agitation in Italy had reached a 
point at which it could no longer be restrained. 
But Napoleon III. still hesitated. 

About the middle of March, Russia proposed 
a congress for the settlement of the question. 
The English government, although annoyed that 
its own mediation should be interrupted in this 
way, assented to the proposal, and in the end 
formulated the essential points for discussion: 

' Lord Derby's second administration, which came into office 
early in 1858. 



"An Interesting Winter" 255 

First, to determine the means by which peace 
between Austria and Sardinia could be preserved; 
secondly, to decide how the evacuation of the 
Roman States by the Austrian and French troops 
could best be effected; thirdly, to examine the 
reforms that should be introduced into the internal 
administration of the States of Italy; fourthly, 
to substitute, for the treaties between Austria 
and the Duchies, a confederation of the States of 
Italy for their mutual protection, both internal 
and external. On March 19th Austria announced 
her acceptance of the proposal of a congress of the 
five great Powers of Europe (thus excluding Pied- 
mont) , provided that no territorial changes should 
be discussed and that Piedmont should disarm 
before the congress met. For her part, Austria 
promised not to attack Piedmont. The English 
government accepted these conditions, and pressed 
Napoleon III. to agree, in order that the two 
governments of France and England might invite 
Sardinia to disarm, and might offer, as an equiva- 
lent, their guarantee against any attack by Austria. 

By the influence of counsellors who were opposed 
to the idea of fighting, Napoleon III. was induced 
to enter into negotiations of this kind — ^perhaps 
merely to gain time, since he did not yet consider 
himself well prepared for war. To persuade 
Cavour, in his turn, the Emperor invited him to 
Paris. 

Cavour reached Paris on March 26th. He 
found the Minister Walewski determined to 



256 Cavour ( 

put every obstacle in the Emperor's way, in order 
to prevent him from entering on a war. But 
what impressed him most was the insistence with 
which the Emperor himself urged him to accept 
the idea of disarming. Piedmont could not do 
this without losing all prestige and all authority 
over the Italian patriots; therefore (as Walewski 
said to Lord Cowley a few days later) no argument, 
no entreaty, influenced the mind of the Count di 
Cavour, who persistently replied that he and his 
sovereign would be lost if they assented to so 
humiliating a proposal. 

Even in these difficult mom.ents Cavour's happy 
temperament enabled him to see the humorous 
side of things. Baron de Rothschild, naturally 
desirous of knowing whether the great minister 
expected war or peace, went to pay him a visit. 
Cleverly evading the question, Cavour said: 
"Now, my Lord, I will make you a proposal. 
Let us combine to buy some stocks. Let us 
speculate for a rise. I will resign, and there will 
be a rise of three francs." " You are too modest," 
replied the Baron with a smile; "your Excellency 
is worth quite six francs." 

Faced by a diplomacy which, in the tangled 
confusion of those days, no longer knew what it 
wanted or what it could achieve, Cavoiir had the 
great advantage of a fixed idea, a definite policy; 
and at that very time, when many diplomatists 
believed that the clouds of war could be dispelled, 
he, on the contrary, was even treating with an 



"An Interesting Winter" 257 

agent of Kossuth's to arrange a timely insurrection 
in Hungary. 

His conversations with the Emperor convinced 
him that war would come about, but that it would 
be delayed at least two months, and that it would 
be waged simultaneously on the Rhine and on the 
Po. These assurances gave him little satisfaction 
— perhaps by reason of the delay, which might 
involve fresh troubles; perhaps by reason of the 
greater complications of so vast a war. He was 
therefore somewhat downcast when he left for 
Piedmont. Truly it was a dramatic contrast 
that, while he came back to Turin (April ist) 
with mind distressed, the people of the capital, 
with boundless faith in him, gathered in crowds 
beneath his windows and already acclaimed him 
as the saviour of Italy. 

While all the diplomacy of Europe was working 
for the maintenance of peace, Cavour pursued in 
secret the audacious policy that was to lead to 
war. Writing at that time to the Prince Napo- 
leon, the only personage at the French Cotut who 
showed himself a zealous defender of the Italian 
cause, he said: "We shall not disarm. To-day 
we have a moral strength that is worth an army. 
If we lose it, nothing will restore it to us." It was 
necessary, however, to make a show of acquiescing 
in the proposals of the Powers, but, by means of 
quibbles, to exhaust the patience of Austria and 
impel her to throw down the glove. 



258 Cavour 

The military element, always predominant at 
the Court of Vienna, was bellicose enough. For 
his part, the Emperor Francis Joseph had reached 
the throne as a youth during the terrible crisis of 
1848, and had formed his political conceptions 
amid the Austrian successes of 1849, and now, 
a young and vigorous man, twenty-nine years of 
age, he could no longer tolerate the constant pin- 
pricks of the little State of Piedmont. His Foreign 
Minister, Count Karl Ferdinand von Buol- 
Schauenstein, might be described as a bad pupil 
of Metternich, whose prejudices and whose arro- 
gance he had inherited. In an atmosphere so proud 
and warlike, the diplomatic finesse of Cavour 
gradually exasperated men's minds to such a 
degree as to make them lose a clear view of 
the situation — the more so as the Austrian ambas- 
sador at Paris was Baron Hiibner, who was not 
only animated by the sentiments common to all 
the diplomatic and military personnel of Austria, 
but also retained a not very pleasant recollection 
of Italy, since in 1848 he had been detained at 
Milan for some months as a hostage. Hubner 
now rejoiced to see peaceful opinions prevailing 
at the Court of Napoleon III.; and after Cavour's 
journey to Paris he was convinced that France 
would abandon Piedmont. He therefore gave 
the Minister Buol such information as to induce 
him to adopt a still more arrogant tone towards 
Piedmont. 

Early in April the Court of Vienna decided to 



"An Interesting Winter" 259 

end the suspense and face war, and it sent notice 
of its intention to General Gitday, Radetzky's 
successor in the command of the Austrian troops 
in Italy. ^ Consequently, while negotiations were 
still in progress, and English diplomacy was 
flattering itself that it could solve the problem 
of Piedmont by a scheme of general disarmament, 
General Giulay caused to be read, in all the bar- 
racks, the following order of the day, which was 
at once transmitted to the Turin newspapers and 
printed by them in proof of Austrian provocation: 

Soldiers! His Majesty the Emperor summons you 
to the standards in order to abase, for the third time, 
the conceit of Piedmont, and to hunt from their lair 
the fanatical subverters of the general tranquillity 
of Europe. Soldiers of every rank! You are going 
against an enemy whom you have always put to 
flight. Remember only Volta, Sommacampagna, 
Curtatone, Montanara, Rivoli, Santa Lucia, and a 
year later La Cava, Vigevano, Mortara and, lastly, 
Novara, where you scattered and annihilated the 
foe. It is useless to recommend discipline and courage 
to you, for your discipline is unique in Europe and in 
courage no army surpasses you. Let your watchword 
be: "Long live the Emperor and our own good 
right." 

On reading this manifesto King Victor Emmanuel 
was filled with indignation. He sent it immedi- 
ately to the Prince Napoleon at Paris, and he 

* Radetzky died in January, 1858, at the age of ninety-one. 



26o Cavour 

wrote to Cavour: "I should like to fire the first 
cannon to-night." 

The more strained the position became, the 
more the diplomatists increased in zeal. There 
was even a moment in which they believed the 
danger of war had been removed. On the night 
of April 1 8th the French ambassador at Turin 
received a telegram from the Count Walewski, 
informing him that Napoleon III. had agreed with 
England upon terms for the meeting of the con- 
gress (to which an attempt would be made to 
admit the Italian States also), and directing him 
to ask Cavour's immediate assent to disarmament. 
A secretary of the embassy went at once to the 
Cavour Palace. The minister had retired to 
rest, but on being told of this unusual visit he 
directed that the secretary should be shown into 
his room. There, sitting on the bed, he read the 
unlucky telegram. It seemed to him that he was 
abandoned by France, and he feared that he had 
drawn his country to ruin. His grief was so great 
that he exclaimed: "There is nothing left for 
me now but to blow out my brains with a pistol." 
In the morning the ambassador paid a personal 
visit to Cavoiir, who handed him this declaration : 

Since France joins England in demanding the 
preventive disarmament of Piedmont, the King's 
government, although it foresees that this provision 
will have the most calamitous consequences for the 
tranquillity of Italy, declares its readiness to comply. 



*' An Interesting Winter" .261 

What anguish it must have been to Cavour to 
write those words! For it seemed that they 
might mark the renunciation of the dream that 
he had cherished so long. 

That was the most tragic moment of Cavour's 
hfe. He shut himself up in his study and gave 
orders that nobody should be allowed to enter. 
His servants and intimate friends were alarmed 
at his behaviour. At length Michelangelo Cas- 
telli resolved to disobey the instruction. Going 
into the study, he foimd Cavour seated at a table, 
and surrounded by heaps of papers that had just 
been torn up. Other documents were burning 
in the fireplace. Cavour looked fixedly at Cas- 
telH, without speaking. "I know," said Castelli, 
"that nobody was to enter here, but I have come 
for that very reason. Am I to believe that the 
Count di Cavour is going to desert the field before 
the battle?" Then, overcome' by emotion, he 
burst into tears. Cavour rose, embraced his 
friend convulsively, and paced about the room 
for a little while in a state of feverish agitation. 
Then, turning again to Castelli, he slowly pro- 
nounced these words: "Let us be calm! We 
will face everything — and always all together." 

By good fortune the importunity of Austria 
rescued Piedmont from her gloomy situation. 
Convinced that these negotiations were all in 
vain, Austria desired to put an end to a position 
that had become intolerable, and decided to pre- 
cipitate events by taking directly in hand the 



262 Cavour 

question of disarmament. She hoped to crush 
Piedmont at once, before the French intervened, 
and trusted then to drag Germany along with 
herself into the struggle against France. Pre- 
cisely on that day (April 19th) on which Cavour 
was so greatly agitated by fear that the idea of 
peace would triumph, the Coimt Buol (who had 
not yet learned of the reply given that very morn- 
ing by Piedmont to France) charged the Baron 
Kellersberg to carry to Turin an invitation to a 
prompt disarmament, and a request for a conclu- 
sive answer within three days. 

The English government, alarmed, interposed 
yet once again to induce the Austrian minister 
to recall Kellersberg by telegraph, pointing out 
that, after the news that had just come of Pied- 
mont's consent, the Austrian government would 
be able to do so with dignity. But Buol replied: 
"We have been ridiculed, provoked and insulted 
by Sardinia too long." 

The Austrian envoy's arrival at Turin was an- 
nounced beforehand for the afternoon of April 23d. 
The Chamber was closed for the Easter vacation, but 
Cavour called a special sitting for that day in order 
to get full powers conferred on the King in case of 
war. The Chamber forthwith approved the pro- 
posal, amid the enthusiastic applause of the public. 

At five-thirty P.M. the Baron Kellersberg de- 
livered the Count Buol's letter to the Coimt di 
Cavour. It closed with this intimation : 



"An Interesting Winter" 263 

I have the honour to beg your Excellency to inform 
me whether the government of the King consents, 
yes or no, to put its army on a peace footing without 
delay, and to disband the Italian volunteers. The 
bearer of this letter, to whom your . Excellency will 
please deliver your answer, has instructions to hold 
himself at your disposal for that purpose during three 
days. If at the end of that time he has received no 
reply, or if the reply is not completely satisfactory, 
the responsibility for the grave consequences that 
may follow from this refusal will fall entirely on the 
government of his Sardinian Majesty. After trying 
in vain every conciliatory means of procuring for 
his people the guarantee of peace on which the 
Emperor is entitled to insist, his Majesty will be 
obliged, with great regret, to resort to force of arms 
in order to obtain it. 



Cavour started with joy when he read these 
fierce words, for they amounted to a declaration 
of war. Having made an appointment with the 
Baron Kellersberg for the same hour three days 
later, in order to give him the answer, he tele- 
graphed to Paris the text of Buol's letter, and 
in the King's name requested the help of the 
French army. Napoleon III., glad that the oppor- 
tunity to decide and act had come at last, gave the 
necessary orders for the sending of his troops into 
Piedmont. 

On April 25th the Subalpine Senate imani- 
mously approved the draft Bill for conferring 
full powers on the King, to which the Chamber 



264 Cavour 

had already consented. On the evening of the 
26th the Baron Kellersberg set out from Turin 
with Cavour's reply, which declared that he had 
nothing to add to the negotiations conducted 
with England. 

Next day (April 27th) King Victor Emmanuel 
announced the war to his troops by this stirring 
proclamation : 

Soldiers! 

Austria, who is increasing her armies on our borders, 
and threatens to invade our land because liberty here 
reigns with order, because here the State is ruled not 
by force but by concord and affection between people 
and sovereign, because here oppressed Italy's cries 
of woe are heard — Austria dares to command us, 
armed only for defence, to lay down our weapons and 
put ourselves in her power. That outrageous com- 
mand deserved a fitting response. I have disdainfully 
rejected it. 

Soldiers! I announce it to you, certain that you 
will make your own the insult offered to your King 
and to the nation. What I announce to you is war. 
Then, soldiers, to arms ! 

You will find yourselves facing an enemy who is 
not new to you; but though he is valiant and disci- 
plined you do not fear comparison with him, and you 
can boast the battles of Goito, Pastrengo, Santa 
Lucia, Sommacampagna — Custoza itself, where four 
brigades struggled for three days against five army- 
corps. I shall be your leader. In times gone by 
many of you have already shared the heat of battle 
with ourselves; and I, fighting at the side of my 



** An Interesting Winter " 265 

magnanimous father, saw your courage with admiring 
pride. 

On the field of honour and glory you will, I am sure, 
know how to preserve, nay, to increase, your fame for 
bravery. You will have as comrades those intrepid 
soldiers of France, victors in many a famous fight, 
of whom you were fellow-soldiers at Tchernaja, and 
whom Napoleon III., ever hastening whither there 
is need to uphold a just cause or defend the cause of 
civilization, generously sends in large numbers to 
our aid. 

March on, then, confident of victory, and with 
fresh laurels decorate your banner! With its three 
colours, and with the flower of the youth of Italy 
arrayed beneath it, that banner tells you that your 
task is the achievement of Italian independence. It 
is a just and sacred enterprise, and it shall be our 
battle-cry. 

Victor Emmanuel. 

Turin, April 27, 1859. 

The long proclamation addressed by Francis 
Joseph to his peoples on April 28th is also highly 
characteristic. Its most important passages run: 

I have ordered my valiant and faithful army to 
put an end to the attacks, lately carried to the extreme 
degree, which the neighbouring State of Sardinia is 
directing against the incontestable rights of my crown 
and the inviolability of the Empire entrusted to me by 
God. I have thus fulfilled my painful but unavoidable 
duty as head of the State. With easy conscience I 
can look up to God omnipotent and submit myself to 
His decree. With confidence I leave my resolution 



266 Cavour 

to the impartial judgment of contemporaries and of 
posterity. As to my people, I am certain of their 
approval. 

When, more than ten years ago, the same enemy, 
violating every rule of international law and every 
custom of war, took arms and flung himself on the 
Lombardo- Venetian Kingdom, without provocation 
and with the sole aim of making himself master of 
it; when, in many glorious encounters, he was beaten 
by my army, I listened only to the voice of generosity 
and I held out the hand to him, offering him recon- 
ciliation. I have not appropriated so much as a 
hand's breadth of his territory; I attacked none of 
the rights that belong to the crown of Sardinia in the 
family of European peoples; I exacted no guarantee 
against the repetition of such events. In the hand 
which grasped, in token of reconciliation, the hand 
that I had sincerely offered, I thought to find nothing 
but reconciliation. I sacrificed to peace the blood 
which my army had spilled in order to uphold the 
honour and rights of Austria. 

What was the response to this generosity, perhaps 
unique in history? Further proof was soon given of 
an enmity that increased from year to year ; an agita- 
tion, fraught with danger to the peace and well-being 
of my Lombardo- Venetian Kingdom, was provoked 
by all the most faithless of means. 

Knowing what I owe to peace, so precious to my 
peoples and to Europe, I patiently endured these 
attacks. . . . But the heart of the monarch must 
keep silent when honour and duty command. 

The enemy stands armed on our frontiers. He has 
allied himself to the party of general subversion with 
the clearly confessed design of seizing the Austrian 



"An Interesting Winter" 267 

possessions in Italy. He is supported by the sovereign 
of France, who, on imaginary pretexts, mixes himself 
up in the affairs of the peninsula, which are regulated 
by treaties, and is sending his army to Piedmont's 
assistance. Already the divisions of that army have 
crossed the Sardinian frontier. 

The crown which my ancestors have transmitted 
to me without blemish has in the past fallen upon evil 
days, but the glorious history of our country shows 
that often, when the clouds of a revolution that im- 
perilled the most precious possessions of humanity 
were threatening to spread over Europe, Providence 
made use of the sword of Austria, by whose flashes 
those clouds were dispelled. We are again in one of 
those epochs in which doctrines subversive of the 
existing order are no longer preached merely by 
factions, but are also thrust upon the world from the 
height of thrones. If I am constrained to draw the 
sword, that sword is consecrated to the defence of 
the honour and good right of Austria, the right of all 
peoples and all States, and the most sacred possessions 
of humanity. 

But it is to you, my peoples, who with your fidelity 
to your legitimate sovereigns are the models of the 
peoples of the earth — it is to you that this appeal of 
mine is directed. Give me, in the struggle that we 
are engaged in, your long-proved fidelity, your self- 
abnegation, your devotion. To your sons whom I 
have called into the ranks of my army, I, their captain, 
send a martial salute. You ought to regard them with 
pride. Entrusted to them, the Austrian eagle will 
carry high its glorious flight. The struggle that we 
maintain is just. We accept it with courage and 
confidence. We hope not to be alone in it. And the 



268 Cavour 

land that we fight on is bathed in the blood of the 
German peoples, our brothers; it was conquered and 
has been kept to this day as one of their bulwarks. 
This is the side from which almost always the astute 
enemies of Germany have begun the attack, when 
they have wished to break her power at the centre. 
The sense of this danger is spread to-day through all 
Germany, from the cabin to the throne, from one 
frontier to the other. And as the head of the German 
Confederation I warn you of the common peril; I 
remind you of those glorious days when Europe owed 
her liberation to the ardour and unanimity of our 
enthusiasm. 

The hope, shown in this proclamation, of drag- 
ging Germany into the struggle came to nothing, 
because Austria was unwilling to make any sacri- 
fice in favour of Prussia. She trusted that German 
national sentiment would prove strong enough to 
draw Germany into the war with France, but she 
was unwilling that Prussia should reap the profit, 
and the attitude which she therefore maintained 
towards that Power chilled the warlike enthusiasm 
of the Germans. On the other hand some of the 
Prussians looked at the political situation in a 
very different way. Bismarck, for example, who 
was then ambassador at St. Petersburg, suggested 
to his government that it should seize the oppor- 
tunity to march against Austria. This advice 
was rejected, since Napoleon III. was hated more 
than Austria at the Court of Berlin; but events 
were carefully watched in expectation that some 



" An Interesting Winter " 269 

occasion favourable to Prussian interests would 
present itself. 

As to Italy, the sovereigns of the various States, 
though favouring Austria, were so much influenced 
by popular feeling that they maintained a neutral 
position. The Duke of Modena alone ventured 
openly to declare himself an ally of Austria. 

As a comparison of the proclamations of the 
sovereigns of Austria and Piedmont plainly shows, 
the war that was breaking out was a war not 
merely between States but between parties too, 
and its result was bound to affect the tendency 
of European political life. The Kingdom of 
Sardinia represented the Liberal regime and the 
principle of nationality. Hence it had the cordial 
support of all the patriots of Italy and all the 
Liberals of Europe. Austria stood for absolutism 
and the predominance of the clergy. Conse- 
quently all the Conservatives and Clericals of 
Europe sent up prayers for her success. 



I 



XV 

BEGONE FROM ITALIA, O STRANGER, BEGONE !' 

Si scorpron le tombe, si levano i morti, 
I martiri nostri son tutti risorti! 
Le spade nel pugno, gli allori alle chiome, 
La fiamma ed il noma d'ltalia sul cor! 
Veniamo! Veniamo, su, o giovani schiere, 
Su al vento per tutto le nostre bandiere! 
Su tutti col ferro, su tutti col foco, 
Su tutti col foco d'ltalia nel cor. 

Va fuori d'ltalia, va fuori ch' h I'ora, 
Va fuori d'ltalia, va fuori, o stranier. 

LuiGi Mercantini: Inno di Garibaldi.' 

* The tombs are uncovered, the dead come from far, 
The ghosts of our martyrs are rising to war, 
With swords in their hands, and with laurels of fame, 
And dead hearts still glowing with Italy's name. 
Come join them! Come follow, O youth of our land! 
Come fling out our banner, and marshal our band! 
Come all with cold steel, and come all with hot fire. 
Come all with the flame of Italia's desire! 

Begone from Italia, begone from our home! 

Begone from Italia, O stranger, begone! 

Garibaldi's Hymn (G, M. Trevelyan's translation). 



371 



CHAPTER XV 

"begone from ITALIA, O STRANGER, BEGONE !" 

The war of 1859: Palestro, Magenta, Solferino and San Martino — 
Cavour as Foreign Minister, Minister of Home Affairs and 
Minister of War and Marine — The most peaceful of the 
revolutions: flight of the Grand Duke of Tuscany from 
Florence — The revolution at Parma, at Modena and in 
Romagna — The preliminaries of Villafranca — Cavour re- 
signs office. 

THE refrain of the famous Inno di Garibaldi, 
composed by Luigi Mercantini for the war 
of 1859 iy^ fuori d' Italia, va fuori, stranier), 
was an exact expression of the hope of the Italians. 
Of such a kind also was the promise contained 
in Napoleon III.'s proclamation, which announced 
in precise terms his desire to free Italy "as far as 
the Adriatic." At the Plombieres meeting Napo- 
leon III. had estimated that three hundred thou- 
sand men would be needed for this enterprise ; he 
said he was prepared to send two hundred thousand, 
and he asked for a hundred thousand Italians. 
Nevertheless he now brought into Italy little more 
than a hundred and twenty thousand, and the 
Piedmontese army numbered only sixty thousand. 
Austria put a hundred and seventy thousand 
18 273 



274 Cavour 

men into the field, besides those who held the 
fortresses of Lombardy-Venetia. The Hungarian 
general Francesco Giulay was in command. 
Austria's plan was to throw herself on the isolated 
Piedmontese and crush them before the arrival 
of the French ; but to carry it out the commander- 
in-chief needed a precision of ideas and a rapidity 
of execution which Giulay did not possess. He 
thought his army insufficiently strong for so bold 
an offensive, and he moved with timidity and 
hesitation. 

On April 29th the Austrians crossed the river 
Ticino (which formed the boundary between 
Lombardy and Piedmont) and advanced towards 
the Sesia. It is a district of rice-fields, and is 
therefore intersected by many canals. Hence 
it was possible to flood the fields and hinder the 
enemy's progress, and this work was facilitated 
by torrential rains that happened to fall just then. 
Meanwhile the Piedmontese army, concentrated 
on the right of the Po and protected by the fort- 
resses of Alessandria and Casale, calmly awaited 
the arrival of the French. The Austrians felt 
so certain of entering Turin that many of the 
officers had told their families to send letters there. 
Such letters reached the Turin Post-Office nearly 
every day. Handing them over to the Prussian 
Minister, who had taken charge of Austrian 
affairs, Cavour smilingly remarked: "Here are 
some letters addressed to people whose homes 
cannot be found; be so good, my dear Count, 



** Begone from Italia, O Stranger!" 275 

as to have them delivered." Yet for some days 
Turin was in serious danger; the Austrians ad- 
vanced as far as Chivasso, about thirty kilometres 
from the capital. 

But while Giulay was losing time through his 
indecision, the French were descending into Italy 
and joining the Piedmontese army near the mouth 
of the Tanaro. Napoleon III. landed at Genoa 
on May 12th, and forthwith went to Alessandria 
to take supreme command. Giulay, seeing that 
his first objective was now hopeless, decided to 
concentrate his troops farther to the south, facing 
the enemy and abandoning a part of the Pied- 
montese territory already occupied. At that 
moment Napoleon determined to carry out a bold 
flank movement from the Po to the Ticino — the 
one strategic manoeuvre of the whole campaign. 
In order to mask this movement on the left, he 
directed the Piedmontese to push forward, and 
Victor Emmanuel, who had already reoccupied 
Vercelli, therefore attacked Palestro. This engage- 
ment (May 30th and 31st) served admirably 
to conceal the movements of the French, who, 
using the Alessandria-Casale-Novara railway, 
reached the bridge over the Ticino at Buffalora. 
When Giulay discovered this clever piece of 
strategy, he saw that he must recross the Ticino, 
and, leading his troops back towards the north, 
hasten to block the enemy's road to Milan. He 
faced the French at Magenta on June 4th, but 
was repulsed and forced to retreat. On Jime 



276 Cavour 

8th Victor Emmanuel and Napoleon III. made 
their triumphal entry into Milan — ^free now from 
foreign domination. On his part Garibaldi, at 
the head of his volunteer corps, the Cacciatori 
delle Alpi, had beaten a corps of Austrians at 
Varese and San Fermo, had victoriously entered 
Como, and was now moving on Bergamo and 
Brescia with the intention of reaching the Tri- 
dentine Alps and cutting off the retreat of the 
Austrians. Meanwhile all the districts that were 
freed from the Austrian troops regarded themselves 
as still indisputably united to the dominions of 
Victor Emmanuel by the annexation Acts of 1848, 
and they gave an enthusiastic welcome to the 
officials who came to take possession of them in 
the King's name. 

After the defeat of Magenta, Giulay was deposed 
from the command, and in his stead the Emperor 
Francis Joseph himself came to take charge of the 
army, with the assistance of the veteran Marshal 
Hess, who had been Radetzky's sagacious ad- 
viser ten years before. On June 24th was fought, 
near the Mincio, the great battle which takes its 
name from the two positions that were most hotly 
contested — Solferino and San Martino. The 
French were engaged at Solferino, the Piedmontese 
at San Martino. After a bloody struggle lasting 
more than twelve hours, the entire Austrian army 
was obliged to fall back and pass the Mincio. 
By this time the Italians* hope of expelling the 
foreigner was becoming certainty; the Franco- 



"Begone from Italia, O Stranger!" 2^^ 

Piedmontese army prepared to assault the fort- 
resses of the Quadrilateral, and the fleet which 
had been sent into the Adriatic was on the point 
of beginning its operations. 

It might be thought that the outbreak of war 
must have thrown Cavour's task into the shade. 
On the contrary his activity just then became 
positively feverish. The Minister of War, Gen- 
eral La Marmora, had set out for the camp, and 
Cavour took up his office also. During those 
ever memorable months Cavour was at the same 
time President of the Council, Foreign Minister, 
Minister of Home Affairs, and Minister of War 
and Marine, and his stimulus and inspiration were 
felt everywhere. On this point his secretary, 
Artom, writes : 

It is difficult for anybody who did not stand by his 
side in the months of April, May and June, 1859, to 
form an adequate conception of his power for work. 
He had a bed set up at the War Office, and at night, 
wrapped in his dressing-gown, he hurried from one 
Ministry to another^ to give orders relating now to 
artillery, now to diplomatic correspondence, now to 
police. 

Cavour strained every nerve to put the utmost 
possible strength into the field, so that victory 

' The ministries at Turin were all collected in the Palazzo delle 
Segretarie (at one side of the royal palace), where at the present 
day is situated the Prefecture. 



278 Cavour 

might not be due exclusively to the French. It 
was also necessary to organize the commissariat 
with precision and rigour, in order to avoid any 
repetition of the grave inconvenience that was 
experienced in 1848-9 through lack of provisions, 
baggage- waggons and mimitions ; and the arrange- 
ments that he made with great energy were 
attended by excellent results. 

Nor was his diplomatic work lessened by the 
outbreak of war, for it was necessary to keep 
Austria in isolation. The Franco-Piedmontese 
victories themselves made the situation more and 
more difficult, since Napoleon III.'s triumphal 
advance through Lombardy alarmed Prussia to 
such a degree that it was feared she might take 
the field after all. 

On May 22, 1859, just at the opening of the 
war. King Ferdinand II. of Naples died at Caserta, 
and the young Prince Francis II., son of the Prin- 
cess Maria Cristina of Savoy, ascended the throne. 
Cavour, anxious, above all else, for a final expul- 
sion of the Austrians, advised the young King 
Francis to grant a Constitution and to send his 
troops to join those of Piedmont and France in 
fighting against Austria. The advice was re- 
jected, but even so. the Italian question was 
advanced another step, for Cslvoxh thenceforth 
felt free from any obligations to the King of 
Naples. 

The news of the war of course excited the minds 
of Liberals even at a distance, though without 



" Begone from Italia, O Stranger! " 279 

serious consequences. Prince Lucien Murat hoped 
to benefit from the situation, and tried to win 
partisans in the kingdom. But those Italians 
who aimed at national tmity set themselves to 
frustrate his scheme, and it was also opposed, 
indirectly, by Cavour. Consequently it made no 
progress. 

Meantime the outbreak of war had thrown the 
provinces of Central Italy into tvumoil, and 
Cavotu" was obliged to watch over and direct the 
movement there. 

It was the Tuscan revolution which left the 
pleasantest memories behind it. Never did a 
people free itself from its sovereigns with greater 
gentleness. It might even be said that at Flor- 
ence the process was marked by friendly courtesy. 
But it must be acknowledged that, among all the 
dynasties overthrown by the Italian revolution, 
the one which niled in Tuscany was singular 
inasmuch as it had never excited a genuine hatred. 
Even its last representative, Leopold II., was not 
a man of bad character; only he had what was to 
the Italian mind the serious defect of belonging 
to the House of Austria, and he had made, in 1849, 
the great mistake of bringing Austrian troops 
into his State. Hence it was the fate of his 
dynasty to follow the fortunes of Austria in Italy. 

There were three prominent parties in Tuscany. 
The Moderates, strong in their wealth and their 
following, would have been content that the 



28o Cavour 

Grand Duke should grant a Constitution and 
take part in the war against Austria. They did 
not aim at any great upheaval — ^perhaps because 
they loved a peaceful life, perhaps because they 
desired to preserve the autonomy of Tuscany. 
But from August, 1857, there had existed in 
Florence a committee of that unionist and mon- 
archical association founded in Turin, under the 
title of the National Society, by George Palla- 
vicino and Joseph La Farina, and this committee, 
presided over by the Marquis Ferdinando Bar- 
tolommei, had decided to overthrow the House 
of Lorraine and ally themselves with Piedmont. 
Cavour, both directly and through La Farina, 
advised them how to proceed. On February 19, 
1859, for instance, he wrote to Bartolommei: 

Petition for alliance with Piedmont on the basis of 
national independence. ... It does not matter 
whether the petition is granted or rejected, provided 
that it is accompanied by the greatest public demon- 
strations that you can make. . . . Take care that 
everything is subordinated to the certainty of a 
success — I do not mean in the result as to the govern- 
ment, but in the demonstration. 

In view of the growing importance of events, 
Cavour felt that the Piedmontese ambassador at 
Florence must be a man who was determined to 
carry out his policy boldly. Fearing that Carlo 
Boncompagni, who then held the office, might be 



** Begone from Italia, O Stranger! " 281 

unwilling to assume so great a responsibility, he 
wrote to him on February i8th in these terms: 

Though we may be in perfect accord as to the 
principles on which our policy reposes and the object 
to be aimed at, it seems to me that our views as to the 
means to be employed do not completely coincide. 
I frankly confess that I am a little less scrupulous 
than you, and I have a conscience (in political affairs) 
a little more accommodating than yours. Neverthe- 
less, I recognize that though I am free to jeopardize 
the safety of my own soul in order to save the country, 
I cannot equally draw the souls of my friends with me 
along the way to perdition. I feel, therefore, that 
I ought to ask you to come to Turin and confer as to 
our policy. 

On reaching Turin, Boncompagni was quickly 
persuaded by Cavour's ardent words. He asked 
to be sent back to Florence, and the request was 
granted. Meantime the National party continued 
its propaganda; and, at Leghorn, Vincenzo Malen- 
chini got together a battalion of volunteers for 
service with Piedmont. When the decisive days 
were drawing near, the Florentine group of the 
National Society sought an agreement with the 
Popular party. That party, led by Joseph Dolfi, 
was also aiming at unity, but its tendencies were 
Mazzinist. It consented to common action in 
order to overthrow the House of Lorraine. The 
Moderates, on the contrary, still hoped to save 
the dynasty and the autonomy of Tuscany by 



282 Cavour 

inducing the Grand Duke to embrace the national 
cause — to renew, that is to say, the poHcy of 1848. 
But it was absurd to think that after the events 
of 1849, after throwing himself into the arms of 
Austria and living for ten years in the most com- 
plete devotion to her, the Grand Duke Leopold 
would be able to resolve a second time to make 
war on his own family. 

After the presentation of Austria's ultimatum 
to Piedmont, Boncompagni officially requested 
a Tuscan alliance. The Grand Duke had already 
repeatedly declared his desire to remain neutral, 
and now he once more confirmed that attitude. 
His refusal of the alliance naturally and neces- 
sarily determined the revolution. The fact that 
a part of the army (in particular the officers of 
artillery) had adopted the ideas of the National 
Society contributed to the easy success of the 
movement. 

On the morning of April 27th a great crowd 
assembled in the Piazza Barbano (now known as 
the Piazza dell'Indipendenza), shouting: "Long 
live the war! Long live Italy! Long live Victor 
Emmanuel ! ' ' And the Piedmontese ambassador's 
house became the meeting-place of the leaders of 
the agitation. Impelled by the Moderate party 
to grant some concession, the Grand Duke charged 
the Prince Corsini to form a new ministry and 
make it known that he would consent to an alli- 
ance with Piedmont. Corsini went to Boncom- 
pagni's house in order to learn the claims of the 



"Begone from Italia, O Strangerl" 283 

revolutionaries. They, desiring the rejection of 
their demands, asked for the abdication of the 
Grand Duke Leopold II. ; the proclamation of his 
son as Ferdinand IV.; alliance with Piedmont; 
prompt co-operation in the war, the supreme 
command of the troops to be entrusted to General 
UUoa, a Neapolitan patriot who had distinguished 
himself in the defence of Venice in 1849; and con- 
stitutional liberty. The Grand Duke was offended 
by the suggestion that he should abdicate; how- 
ever, he took time to consider his answer. Mean- 
while he learned that the tricolour had been hoisted 
over certain forts, and that the army showed no 
inclination to fight against the people. The 
Grand Duke consulted his ministers and the 
Austrian ambassador, and a little after mid-day 
he replied to Corsini that his dignity did not allow 
him to accept the proposed conditions, and that 
during the day he and all his family would leave 
by the Bologna road. Having assembled the 
diplomatic corps, he protested strongly against 
the violence that was being shown towards him, 
declared null and void everything that might be 
done in his absence, and asked the ambassadors 
whether they could ensure the safety of his depar- 
ture. All the ambassadors expressed their readi- 
ness to do so, and Boncompagni, the Piedmontese 
representative, personally pledged himself for 
the Grand Duke's security, though he said the 
temperate and civil demeanour of the Florentine 
people could not be doubted. 



284 Cavour 

The news that the Lorraine dynasty was leaving 
Florence aroused the Hveliest deHght among the 
population, which by this time was quite unani- 
mous; for after the latest negotiations even the 
Moderate party was persuaded to abandon a 
dynasty that took its orders from Vienna. The 
crowd in the streets grew more and more dense. 
It formed into companies and surged merrily 
through the city, displaying tricoloured banners 
and carrying portraits of Victor Emmanuel, 
raised overhead on poles. It halted to give a 
special cheer beneath the windows of the Sardinian 
and French ambassadors. And then, since dinner- 
time had come, it went quietly home. 

Shortly before sunset the Grand Duke and all 
his family set out from the Pitti Palace in state- 
coaches, escorted by mounted gendarmes, accom- 
panied by many officials, and followed by the 
carriages of the Legations. It was the funeral of 
a monarchy definitely extinguished. ^ 

That same evening (April 27th) the City 
Council of Florence, regarding itself as the sole 
remaining element of authority, and "desiring 
to meet the supreme necessity that Tuscany 
should not be left without a government," ap- 
pointed Ubaldino Peruzzi, Vincenzo Malenchini, 

' Leopold II. never entered Tuscany again. He died in 1870, 
leaving as heir to his claims his son Ferdinand, born at Florence 
in 1835, who died at Salzburg (Austria) in 1908. Ferdinand's 
eldest son, the Archduke Joseph Ferdinand, was bom in exile 
(at Salzburg), and resides at Linz (Austria). 



"Begone from Italia, O Stranger! " 285 

and Alexander Danzini to rule the State provi- 
sionally. Next day this provisional government 
offered the dictatorship during the war to Victor 
Emmanuel, reserving the final arrangement till 
the war was ended. 

The Tuscan question had not been discussed 
with Napoleon III. In order to avoid arousing his 
suspicions, Cavour declared that King Victor 
would merely assume the protectorate of Tuscany 
and the supreme command of the troops; and the 
King appointed as his commissioner extraordinary 
in Tuscany that same Carlo Boncompagni who 
had hitherto been his ambassador there. 

Among the ministers whom Boncompagni there- 
upon nominated for the government of Tuscany, 
the Baron Bettino Ricasoli (bom in 1809) soon 
took the lead by virtue of his intellectual vigour 
and force of will. Ricasoli is one of the most 
important figures of the Italian Risorgimento. 
Descended from the oldest feudal aristocracy, he 
preserved the fierce and haughty character of his 
line, but a close study of economics and politics 
had led him to accept the aspirations of his age; 
he had travelled much and had spent a long time 
abroad, and in recent years had become convinced 
that the solution of the Italian question lay in a gen- 
eral rally round Piedmont. As long ago as October, 
1856, in a letter to his brother Vincenzo, he wrote: 

It is essential to drive out Austria. . . . Now as 
no prince, save the King of Sardinia, would take action 



286 Cavour 

against Austria, the first necessity is a revolution to 
expel all the princes — except that one who ought to 
remain — and thus to give Italy a robust and fruitful 
unity. 

When he attained to power he was firmly deter- 
mined to bring about the execution of this design ; 
but among the Tuscan magnates there were still 
many who desired that their country should 
retain its autonomy. Some of them thought it 
possible to constitute a State of Tuscany, of which 
the Crown should be offered to that Prince Napo- 
leon who had married the Princess Clotilde of 
Savoy. Napoleon III. seemed to regard that 
project with favour, but it was immediately and 
energetically opposed by Ricasoli and Cavour. 
On May 23, 1859, the fifth French army-corps, 
commanded by the Prince Jerome Napoleon, 
landed at Leghorn under the pretext of organizing 
the military elements of Central Italy and then 
harassing the Austrians on the extreme left. 
But the Tuscan people soon made it understood 
that they were looking to Victor Emmanuel II. 
Ricasoli, too, was actively exerting himself in the 
same direction. On June 12th, four days after 
Napoleon III. and Victor Emmanuel entered 
Milan, he clearly set forth his unionist opinion 
in a letter to the minister Salvagnoli : 

I am firm and unhesitating in the policy of Italian 
unity ; nay, I wish that Tuscany may have the merit 
of reconciling the formula of the opportunists— fusion 



" Begone from Italia, O Stranger! " 287 

with Piedmont, a Protectorate, and so forth — with 
that of Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy, the title he- 
reditary in his dynasty. This formula expels the 
old races, extinguishes the old Italy and makes the 
new — a great and real nation. 



Having observed the attitude of the country, 
the Prince Napoleon not merely abstained from 
showing personal ambitions, but himself advised 
the annexation of Tuscany to Piedmont. Then, 
with the troops collected in Tuscany, he crossed 
the Apennines, and joined the French army just 
after the battle of Solferino. 



The outbreak of the war had caused great agita- 
tion also in the Duchies of Parma and Modena, 
and in the dominions of the Pope. 

On May ist the Duchess of Parma, who ruled 
in the name of her son Robert, fled with her 
children to Mantua. A provisional government 
was constituted, but on May 3d the ducal troops 
remaining in the city expelled that government 
and called back the Duchess, who re-entered the 
city on the following day. A month later, how- 
ever, at the news of the battle of Magenta, the 
agitation in Parma reached such proportions that 
the Duchess again decided to leave the city (June 
9th). Thereupon another provisional govern- 
ment was formed, which declared the act of union 
with Piedmont, voted by the Duchy in 1848, to 



288 Cavour 

be again in force. The Count Pallieri was sent 
there as royal governor. 

Very similar events developed in the neighbour- 
ing Duchy of Modena. On the proclamation of 
war, those inhabitants of Massa and Carrara 
whose unhappy condition Cavour had discussed 
with Napoleon III. at the meeting of Plombieres 
rose at once against the Duke of Modena. It was 
in vain that he threatened them, for they organized 
themselves in military fashion and they were 
aided by Piedmont. When news of the battle 
of Magenta and the liberation of Parma reached 
the Duchy, even Francis V. was obliged to think 
of his own safety. On June nth he set out to- 
wards Mantua, entrusting power to a regency 
that was speedily overthrown by the insurgent 
people. Here, too, a provisional government 
was set up, and it, likewise, proclaimed that the 
fusion with Piedmont enacted in 1848 was re- 
stored to validity. Cavour sent his friend Luigi 
Carlo Farini there as governor. 

At Bologna also the people rose on June 12th, 
expelled the Cardinal- Legate, and hoisted the 
tricoloiH" ; and from Bologna the revolution spread 
in a few days through all Romagna, and then to 
the Marches and Umbria. But here the move- 
ment was repressed by the papal troops. On 
June 20th they subjected Perugia, to the accom- 
paniment of massacres, sackings, burnings and 
every kind of excess; and the impression which 
these brutalities created enabled them easily to 



"Begone from Italia, O Stranger! " 289 

reoccupy the other towns of Umbria and the 
Marches. Romagna, on the contrary, maintained 
its freedom and offered the dictatorship to Victor 
Emmanuel, who sent Massimo D'Azeglio to rule 
it, with the title of Commissioner for War. 
D'Azeglio reached Bologna on July nth — the very 
day on which the bases of peace were being laid 
at Villafranca. 

The events of Central Italy showed that unionist 
sentiment had moved far in Italy during the last 
decade. Grief had brought the qualities of pru- 
dence and sagacity to maturity in the Italians. 
So in 1859 the populations of the peninsula avoided 
the errors of 1848 and 1849; there were no more 
discussions about the form of government, but 
everywhere a unanimous intention to join forces 
aroimd the Liberal monarchy of Savoy. Napo- 
leon III., on the contrary, desired the organization 
of an Italian confederation, over which France 
might always be able to make her predominance 
felt. Consequently he began to feel dissatisfied 
with the development of the Italian situation. 

On the other hand the Clerical party in France, 
annoyed by the injury which the Italian revolu- 
tion was inflicting upon the temporal power of 
the Pope, showed its discontent more and more 
openly, and of this trend of public opinion the 
Empress Eugenie made herself a highly zealous 
interpreter to the Emperor. He was receiving 
news also of the growing hostility of Prussia, who 



290 Cavour 

seemed daily more alarmed by the French vic- 
tories, and was apparently making ready to inter- 
vene in the struggle. In that event France would 
have been obliged to defend herself along the 
Rhine while the larger and better half of her troops 
were facing the very serious diflficiilties presented 
by the fortresses of the Italian Quadrilateral. 
The situation was becoming perilous — ^the more 
so as, even amid the successes of the campaign* 
the Emperor had discovered many defects in his 
army. 

The awful sight of the multitude of corpses that 
covered the ground around Solferino and San 
Martino had already perturbed Napoleon III., and 
now this combination of reasons was leading his 
mind to thoughts of peace. On the evening of 
July 6th he wrote to the Emperor of Austria, who 
had retreated to Verona, proposing an armistice 
and a meeting. Francis Joseph agreed. On 
July 8th the three generals (Hess, Vaillant and 
Morozzo Delia Rocca), representing the three 
armies, arranged the terms of a truce till August 
15th. The meeting of the two Emperors was 
fixed for July nth at Villafranca. 

At the first news of these negotiations Cavour 
experienced bitter grief. He hurried to the camp 
in a state of violent irritation, and immediately 
on his arrival at Monzambano (July loth) had 
an interview with Victor Emmanuel and counselled 
him not to agree to proposals of peace. The 
two Emperors, however, met at Villafranca. It 



** Begone from Italia, O Stranger! " 291 

was there settled that the Emperor of Austria 
should cede Lombardy to Napoleon III., who in 
turn would hand it over to King Victor Emmanuel 
II.; that the two sovereigns should favour the 
creation of a Confederation of the States of Italy 
under the honorary presidency of the Pope; that 
Venetia (with Mantua and Peschiera), although 
forming part of this Confederation, should remain 
under Austria. It was added that the Grand 
Duke of Tuscany and the Duke of Modena should 
re-enter their States ; but no indication of the means 
of their restoration was given, for Napoleon III. 
wished to exclude absolutely the idea of Austrian 
intervention, and Francis Joseph hoped that he 
himself might be able to re-establish them. As 
to Parma and Piacenza, the Emperor of Austria 
declared that he was unable to approve their 
assignment to Piedmont, but that he would not 
raise objections. 

Napoleon III. communicated these decisions 
to Victor Emmanuel. The King's grief was 
profotmd; but when he passed the information on 
to Cavour his spirited minister gave way to an 
outburst of violent indignation, for he saw the 
edifice on which he had worked with so much 
assiduity, and to which he had devoted all the 
powers of his mind, collapsing at one blow. In 
vain the King tried to calm him; he allowed 
phrases of scanty respect to escape him; it seemed 
that he had lost his reason. When he saw that his 
remonstrances were useless he resigned. Victor 



292 Cavour 

Emmanuel, although the act wrung blood from 
his heart, signed the treaty, but with the ad- 
dition of these words: "I agree so far as it 
concerns me." 



I 



XVI 



ITALIAN ABILITY AND ENGLISH SYMPATHY 

Peace, peace, is still your word? 

We say you lie then! — that is plain. 

There is no peace, and shall be none. 
Our very Dead would cry "Absurd!" 

And clamour that they died in vain, 

And whine to come back to the sun. 
Elizabeth Barrett Browning: First News from Villafranca. 



293 



CHAPTER XVI 

ITALIAN ABILITY AND ENGLISH SYMPATHY 

Uncertainty of the situation — Energetic action of Farini and 
Ricasoli, and good sense of the populations of Central Italy — 
Peace of Zurich — The English government favours the 
Italian cause — Napoleon III. and the Pope — Cavour returns 
to power — The question of Savoy and Nice; cession of those 
territories to France; Garibaldi's sorrow — The plebiscites 
of Tuscany and Emilia — Opening of the new Parliament. 

THE first effect produced among the Italians 
by news of the preHminaries of Villafranca 
was one of grief and stupor. For, after the victory 
of Solferino and San Martino, they thought the 
final expulsion of the Austrians was easy and 
certain, and it seemed to them inexplicable that 
Napoleon III. should stop half-way. They talked 
of treachery, and, in the chagrin of seeing Venetia 
still left in subjection to Austria, they gave them- 
selves up to imprecations against that same 
Emperor of the French whom a few months before 
they had greeted with such enthusiastic acclama- 
tions. Cavour himself was furious: "The Em- 
peror has dishonoured me — ^yes, dishonoured!" 
he exclaimed to Kossuth and Pietri. During the 
few days in which he still held power, before the 
295 



296 Cavour 

formation of the new ministry, he told everyone 
that the peace would not be carried out, and made 
it understood that it was necessary, meanwhile, 
to prevent the restorations in Central Italy. 
Farini wrote to him from Modena: "If the Duke 
wishes to return, I treat him as an enemy of 
King and country; I will not allow myself to be 
driven away by anybody." And, by telegraph, 
Cavour replied: "The minister is dead; the 
friend clasps your hand and applauds the decision 
that you have taken." When the Rattazzi- 
La Marmora ministry had been formed, Cavour 
withdrew into the country for a time, feeling that 
even his temporary eclipse would serve the Italian 
cause. 

The Piedmontese government was obliged, of 
course, to recall the governors who had been sent 
to Parma, Modena, Bologna and Florence; but, 
before they relinquished power, these governors 
took care that it should be entrusted to men who 
were firmly resolved to resist any restoration. 
At Modena, in fact, Farini, while announcing 
that he was no longer royal commissioner, accepted 
the dictatorship offered to him by the citizens, 
and began vigorously to collect forces in order to 
prevent Francis V.'s attempting, from Mantua, 
a reoccupation of the State. Then the inhabitants 
of the Duchy of Parma also offered him the dicta- 
torship, and Farini resolutely accepted it. Ro- 
magna at first appointed the Tuscan Leonetto 
Cipriani as governor, but afterwards, seeing that 



Italian Ability and English Sympathy 297 

he was too much devoted to Napoleon III., in- 
duced him to renoimce office, and offered the 
dictatorship to Farini, who accepted it without 
delay. Thus the government of all Emilia was 
concentrated in the hands of a single energetic, 
daring man, who knew how to surmount the grave 
difficulties of the situation. 

In Tuscany, the Baron Bettino Ricasoli assumed 
the direction of the government after Boncom- 
pagni had withdrawn, and he began with firmness 
and resolution to carry out the programme of the 
union of the Italian peoples under Victor Emman- 
uel. "While political Assemblies were being con- 
voked in Emilia and Tuscany, Farini thought it 
opportune to unite the military forces, and on 
August loth he succeeded in concluding a military 
league of the four States. The supreme command 
was given to the General Manfredo Fanti, who 
speedily organized an army of forty thousand 
men. Meantime the foiu* political Assemblies 
(elected on a Liberal franchise and embracing 
the most distinguished citizens) which had met 
at Florence, Bologna, Modena and Parma, were 
proclaiming afresh the fall of the old governments 
and annexation to Victor Emmanuel's kingdom. 
And this imposing movement was all developing 
amid calm and order — a fact which served to make 
the world realize the good sense of those Italian 
peoples and their confidence in the two Dictators. 

The dispossessed Princes protested, naturally. 
The Cabinet of Vienna threatened to break off 



298 Cavour 

the negotiations that had been opened at Zurich 
for the definite conclusion of peace. Napoleon 
III. himself disliked the way Italian affairs were 
moving. He desired the union of Parma and 
Piacenza to Piedmont; he might have brought 
himself to approve the annexation of Modena 
also; and he hoped to solve the question of Ro- 
magna, although this was complicated by his 
relations with the Pope. But he was strongly 
opposed to the annexation of Tuscany. "If 
annexation passed the Apennines," he observed 
to the Marquis Pepoli on July 15th, "the unity 
of Italy would be achieved. And I do not desire 
her imity, but only her independence, because 
unity would involve me in internal perils by 
reason of Rome, and France would not be pleased 
to see the rise, on her flank, of a great nation that 
might be able to diminish her influence." In 
such circumstances the Rattazzi-La Marmora 
ministry, afraid of taking a wrong step, moved 
with timidity and uncertainty, neither able to 
refuse the offered annexations, nor daring to 
accept them. Meantime the final treaties of 
peace were signed at Zurich on November loth. 
The terms fixed at Villafranca were rehearsed 
in them, though without any reference either to 
confederation or to restoration of the dispossessed 
Princes, these subjects being reserved for a future 
congress. 

It now seemed to Cavour that the Piedmontese 
government ought to proceed with greater daring. 



Italian Ability and English Sympathy 299 

By this time the fury aroused in his mind by the 
terrible disillusionment of Villafranca had sub- 
sided, and he judged the position more calmly: 
"We have followed one road; it is now cut off. 
Well, we shall take another." The new way was 
to rely on England and to exploit the rivalry 
of the two Western Powers. 

In England the Conservative ministry had 
fallen during the preceding June. Lord Palm- 
erston had again come into power, and had 
entrusted the portfolio of foreign affairs to Lord 
John Russell. These two men, who on other 
occasions had already shown their sympathy for 
the Italian cause, now took a very prominent part 
in assuring its triumph. In that work they were 
powerfully aided by Sir James Hudson, the 
English ambassador at Turin, who was an en- 
thusiastic admirer of Cavour. Moreover, the 
anxieties aroused in England by the successes of 
Napoleon III., which had greatly contributed to 
the decline of England's sympathy for Italy 
during the war, were by this time at an end; 
England, in fact, was observing with pleasure the 
dissatisfaction of the Italians with Napoleon III. 
And the country's interests led the English govern- 
ment to favour the Italian national movement, 
in the hope of withdrawing the new kingdom from 
French influence. 

In view of the calm but inflexible attitude of 
Central Italy, and the favour which England was 



300 Cavour 

showing for the Italian cause, Napoleon III. felt 
convinced that it was no longer possible to prevent 
the annexations. Moreover, he was now offended 
with the Pope, who was unwilling to take his 
advice and give up the rebel provinces. Their 
relations were embittered because in The Pope 
and the Congress, a pamphlet published at Paris 
under the Emperor's inspiration, it was plainly- 
said that the city of Rome and the Patrimony of 
St. Peter were sufficient for the independence of 
the Holy See. Pius IX. had publicly declared that 
pamphlet to be "a notable monument of hypocrisy 
and a tissue of ignoble contradictions," and he 
had given a negative answer to Napoleon III.'s 
fresh solicitations. Napoleon III. now thought 
it suited him better to desist from opposition to 
the Italian policy, so that he might at least gain 
some advantage from it. To facilitate this plan 
he, early in January, dismissed the Minister 
Walewski, who had all along been hostile to Italy, 
and put Thouvenel in his place. 

The moment had come when Italy must act 
with great energy; but everybody felt that only 
Cavour's strong hand could steer the ship into 
port amid so many perils, and he himself was 
impatient to recover power in order to gratify 
the righteous ambition of securing his country's 
future. On January 20, i860, King Victor Em- 
manuel, suppressing his personal resentment to- 
wards the too spirited minister, again entrusted 
him with the Presidency of the Council and the 




VISCOUNT PALMERSTON 

From the engraving by D. J. Pound 

After the photo by Mayall 



Italian Ability and English Sympathy 301 

Home and Foreign Ministries. At once Cavour 
gave a bolder turn to the policy of Piedmont; 
he sent to all the Powers a Circular, in which he 
declared that it was by this time impossible for 
King Victor Emmanuel to resist the natural and 
necessary movement of events. Then, in order 
to persuade Napoleon III. to desist from all opposi- 
tion, he put before him the idea of submitting the 
question of annexation to a plebiscite of the popu- 
lations of Central Italy. Naturally Napoleon 
III., who had risen to the imperial throne by this 
very method of a plebiscite, was unable to deny 
the value of such a test in Italy. But he saw that 
France was discontented because the blood that 
she had poured out in Italy seemed to have 
brought her no advantage, and therefore he 
claimed some compensation. The cession of 
Savoy to France had been agreed upon in the 
meeting of Plombieres, the question of Nice being 
left in suspense. Only the war had ended without 
the formation of that Kingdom of Upper Italy, 
from the Alps to the Adriatic, which had been the 
subject of negotiation, and consequently the 
cessions to France had been no longer mentioned. 
Now, however, if the annexation of Central Italy 
came about, Victor Emmanuel would have a 
kingdom of eleven million inhabitants — as large 
as that provided for him at Plombieres. In order 
to bind Napoleon to the destinies of Italy, Cavour 
offered him Savoy, but the Emperor demanded 
Nice also, and it was necessary to yield to his 



302 Cavour 

claims, though it was stipulated that for Savoy 
and Nice also there shoiild be the test of a ple- 
biscite. ' 

The treaty by which Savoy, the cradle of the 
ruling dynasty, and Nice, Garibaldi's native 
place, were ceded to France was signed at Turin 
in the office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 
March 24, i860. Cavour paced up and down the 
room while the treaty was being read — ^his hands 
in his pockets, his head bowed, his aspect one of 
great preoccupation. But when he had made his 
signature his countenance cleared, and rubbing 
his hands (as his habit was when things were going 
well) he went up to the French Minister and said 
to him: "And now we are accomplices, aren't 
we?" The phrase exactly expressed the situation 
in which that agreement was placing the French 
government. 

Grievously wounded in his most intimate 
affections by this cession, Joseph Garibaldi uttered 
violent words against Cavour in Parliament; but 
the Chamber, though respecting the great hero's 
grief, approved the treaty, for it was a necessity 
of the moment. Cavour assumed all the respon- 
sibility for it: . 

The cession of Nice and Savoy [he declared] was 
an essential condition of the prosecution of that 

' The plebiscite in Savoy and in the district of Nice took place 
on April 15th and 22d. It showed an enormous majority in 
favoui of annejsation to France. 



Italian Ability and English Sympathy 303 

policy which in so short a time has brought us to 
Milan, Florence, Bologna. . . . Popularity is as dear 
to us as ever, and moreover in many circumstances 
my colleagues and I have tasted that sometimes 
intoxicating beverage ; but we know how to renounce 
this popularity in so far as our duty imposes renun- 
ciation upon us. In signing this treaty we had a firm 
conviction that an enormous unpopularity would 
descend upon us, but we faced it because we were per- 
suaded that by so acting we were serving the interests 
of Italy. 

They are noble words, and they show Cavour's 
intense devotion to the idea of duty. 

Meantime the plebiscite was taken in Central 
Italy on the question : Union to the constitutional 
monarchy of Victor Emmanuel or a separate king- 
dom? In Tuscany there were 366,571 votes for 
union, and 14,925 for a separate kingdom; in the 
Duchies of Parma and Modena and in Romagna, 
426,006 votes for union, and 756 for a separate 
kingdom— results which showed the almost 
unanimous will of the people. These provinces 
were forthwith declared integral parts of the 
kingdom. 

The fallen sovereigns naturally entered their 
protests, and the Pope hurled excommunication 
against the men who had planned and co-operated 
in the annexation of Romagna to the Sardinian 
kingdom; but these protests did not in the least 
perturb the delighted Italians; and the general 



304 Cavour 

election which was held at that time resulted in a 
great victory for the Cavour ministry. ' 

On April 2, i860, in opening the new Pariiament, 
where Deputies from Lombardy and Central 
Italy sat beside those of the old provinces, King 
Victor Emmanuel greeted "the representatives 
of the rights and hopes of the nation." But 
though hopes were bold and faith in the future 
was warm, reality was by far to exceed expectation. 
A few days went by, and the national movement 
passed even to the South of Italy, like an avalanche 
that sweeps all before it. 

^ The number of Deputies in the Subalpine Parliament had 
been two hundred and four; after the conquest of Lombardy, and 
the aimexation of Central Italy, it was raised to three hundred 
and eighty -seven. 



XVII 

THE HEROIC ENTERPRISE OF THE "THOUSAND" 

E tu ridevi, stella di Venere, 
Stella d'ltalia, stella di Cesare: 
non mai primavera piu sacra 
d'animi italici illuminasti, 

da quando ascese tacita il Tevere 
d'Enea la prora d'avvenir gravida 
e cadde Pallante appo i clivi 
che sorger videro I'alta Roma. 

Carducci: Scogliodi Quarto. '■ 

'And thou didst smile, star of Venus, star of Italy, star of 
Caesar: never hast thou shone upon a spring more hallowed to 
Italian hearts since ^neas's bark, heavy with fate, did silently 
ascend the Tiber, and Pallas fell among the hills that watched 
the rise of mighty Rome. 



305 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE HEROIC ENTERPRISE OF THE " THOUSAND " 

Cavour and the unity of Italy — Preparation of the expedition of 
the Thousand; Cavour's doubts and fears; his favourable 
decision — Landing of Garibaldi at Marsala and his victories 
in Sicily — Vain concessions by King Francis II. — Garibaldi 
enters Naples in triumph — Victor Emmanuel's army occu- 
pies the Marches and Umbria — Military glory and political 
success — Lord John Russell's eulogies — Italy constitutes 
herself a nation without any sacrifice of liberty. 

IT has been much discussed whether Cavour all 
along had the idea of Italian unity before his 
mind. This was certainly the dream that ever al- 
lured him, but before 1859 he did not know whether 
its realization would be possible in so short a time. 
During his first conversation with Joseph La 
Farina, in September, 1856, he said: 

I have faith that Italy will become a single State, 
and that she will have Rome for her capital, but I do 
not know whether she is prepared for this great trans- 
formation, since I have no knowledge of the other 
Italian provinces. I am minister of the King of 
Sardinia, and I am not able, nor ought I, to say or do 
an3rthing that may prematurely compromise the 
dynasty. Create the National Society; if the Italians 
307 



3o8 Cavour 

show themselves ripe for unity, I have hope that the 
opportunity will not be long in coming. 

Thus he was even then preparing the ground 
for a bolder advance in case circumstances should 
allow it to be made. But he did not believe that 
the opportunity would be reached so soon ; perhaps 
he would even have wished the national move- 
ment to be less rapid, in order that he might have 
time to organize the newly constituted Kingdom 
of Upper Italy. But the events of Northern and 
Central Italy had a speedy and powerful effect 
in the South. Liberal demonstrations on a small 
scale were made in many towns. On November 
27th Maniscalco, chief of police, was seriously 
wounded on the threshold of the Cathedral of 
Palermo, and the authorities never succeeded in 
arresting the assassin. Francesco Crispi, the 
Sicilian exile, went secretly to his native island 
to gain a thorough knowledge of the state of men's 
minds and to keep alive the hopes of the patriots. 
In his turn Cavour, whose finger was on the pulse 
of the public, and who realized that to continue 
to direct the revolution it was necessary to be in 
the middle of it, wrote on March 30, i860, to 
Villamarina, the Piedmontese ambassador at 
Naples, in order to obtain a precise idea of the 
position there: 

Evidently events of great importance are developing 
in the South of Italy. . . . You know that I have 




FRANCESCO CRISPI 
From a photo by Alinari 



Heroic Enterprise of the "Thousand" 309 

not the least desire to thrust forward a premature 
solution of the Neapolitan question. I believe, on 
the contrary, it would be more convenient for us that 
the present condition of things should last for, say, 
a year longer. But I have it from a good source that 
England herself despairs of the maintenance of the 
status quo. . . . Hence I believe that we shall very 
soon be forced to devise a plan which I would rather 
have had time to mature. 

In fact, a few days later (April 4th) insurrection 
broke out at Palermo. Within the city, the insur- 
gents were subdued by the royal troops, and 
thirteen of the arrested rebels were put to death. 
But bands of Liberals continued to scour the 
country districts, and tumults arose in some of 
the most important towns of the island, such as 
Messina and Catania. Rosalino Pilo, a daring 
Sicilian, landed in Sicily at that time, with the 
object of keeping the insurrection on foot. He 
had set out from Genoa with a few companions, 
on March 25th, to call his compatriots to arms. 

No sooner did the first news of the Sicilian in- 
surrection reach Upper Italy, than the organization 
of a force in aid of the insurgents was pro- 
jected. Garibaldi was invited to lead the enter- 
prise, but he was undecided, fearing that it would 
prove as ill-advised as the expedition of Sapri. 
It was on the evening of April 12th at Turin, after 
leaving the sitting of the Chamber in which the 
treaty for the cession of his native Nice to France 
had been approved, that he first adopted the idea 



3IO Cavour 

of the expedition. He went off then to the Villa 
Spinola at Quarto, near Genoa, to watch over the 
preparations. Gloomy news, coming unexpectedly 
from Sicily, gave the impression that the insur- 
rection was already crushed, and at that moment 
(April 27th) Garibaldi declared that it would be 
folly to go; but on April 30th he allowed himself 
to be convinced afresh by the ardent words of 
Nino Bixio, and of Francesco Crispi, who had 
procured reassuring accounts of the Sicilian 
movement. 

If thoughts so contradictory agitated Garibaldi's 
mind in those days, it is not strange that Cavour 
felt doubts and fears as to the attitude to be 
assumed. For him, the minister of a sovereign 
who was at peace with the King of the Two 
Sicilies, and who had already encountered the 
disapproval of a great part of Europe by reason 
of the annexation of Central Italy, the problem 
was much more complex than it was for Gari- 
baldi. So that even he was obliged, just then, 
to show contradictory intentions — a fact which 
very well explains the diverse judgments pro- 
nounced, at that time and afterwards, upon this 
episode of his political life. 

Cavour had no scruples as to his behaviour 
towards the King of Naples, whom he knew to be 
in close alliance with the Pope and Austria, to 
Piedmont's detriment; and as soon as the Sicilian 
insurrection had broken out, he thought of sending 
aid to the rebels, and with that object summoned 



Heroic Enterprise of the "Thousand" 311 

General Ribotti (who in 1848 commanded a bri- 
gade of Sicilian revolutionaries) to Turin. But 
while Ribotti was hastening to Turin from Rimini, 
where he was at that time stationed, Cavour 
learned of the solicitations which had been brought 
to bear upon Garibaldi from other quarters. He 
readily understood that Garibaldi was the one 
man who had the prestige necessary for carrying 
out the great undertaking, and consequently he 
sent Ribotti back to Rimini. As it was impossible 
for him to open direct relations with Garibaldi, 
whose hot indignation he had aroused by the 
cession of Nice, he charged La Farina to concert 
a plan with La Masa. These two Sicilian exiles* 
certain that they were following the minister's 
wishes, put themselves un-^.er Garibaldi's orders 
from April 20th. 

At the beginning of the year Garibaldi, with the 
permission of the government, had opened a 
public subscription for the purchasing of a million 
rifles. In this way, twelve thousand rifles had 
already been got together. They were now at 
Milan. Garibaldi gave orders for them to be 
sent to Genoa, where the volimteers for the ex- 
pedition were being assembled; but Massimo 
D'Azeglio, who was Governor of Milan, and whose 
straightforwardness prevented him from approv- 
ing a policy of intrigue, feared to assimie so grave 
a responsibility, and prevented the rifles from 
leaving Milan. Cavoiir, of course, was unable 
to overrule this embargo without compromising 



312 Cavour 

the government, and Joseph La Farina undertook to 
supply muskets belonging to the National Society. ^ 

Cavour naturally feared an unsuccessful issue 
to the expedition, and was apprehensive of the 
disastrous consequences in which such a cata- 
strophe might involve the national movement, 
now so well on its way. Hence it was that he, 
too, had his moments of inconsistency. At 
Genoa, on April 23d, he said to Sirtori, who had 
come to lay before him the plan of the expedition : 
"When it is a question of undertakings like this, 
however bold they may be, the Count di Cavour 
will be second to nobody." Yet that same even- 
ing, when he reached Turin, he decided (perhaps 
by reason of the bad news received from Sicily) 
to send Colonel FrappoUi to Garibaldi for the 
purpose of trying to dissuade him. 

On the night of April 30th Cavour learned that 
Garibaldi had definitely decided to set out. The 
King, who had been informed of the preparation 
of the expedition and regarded it with sympathy, 
was then in Emilia, whither he had gone to visit 
officially the new cities of his kingdom. On May 
1st Cavour went to Bologna to meet him, and 
there King and minister agreed in the idea of 
allowing the expedition to complete its prepara- 

' It has often been stated that Cavour purposely caused bad 
muskets to be given to the Garibaldini, but Trevelyan {Garibaldi 
and The Thousand, c. x) justly observes: "In all probability 
Cavour did not know that the weapons of the National Society 
were bad, since even Garibaldi, who had been President of the 
Society, only found that out when he saw them unpacked." 



Heroic Enterprise of the "Thousand" 313 

tions and to set out. Then, as though he wished 
by his distance from the capital to avoid the 
embarrassments which diplomacy would not fail 
to create for him, Cavour accompanied the King 
to Modena, and returned to Turin only on the 
evening of the 5th, just when the Garibaldian 
volunteers were on the point of embarking. 

The departure of that fine band of valiant men 
was no secret to anyone except the government 
authorities. Garibaldi had arranged with Fauche, 
agent for the Rubattino Company, to have at 
his disposal the two steamships Lombardo and 
Piemonte, but it was necessary to pretend to 
capture them in the harbour of Genoa. During 
the night of May 5th, therefore, Nino Bixio, at 
the head of a little group of men, boarded the two 
vessels, took possession of them, and brought them 
to the neighbouring village of Quarto, where the 
volunteers embarked just as dawn was breaking. 
About twelve hundred men had responded to 
Garibaldi's invitation. They belonged in great 
part to the bourgeoisie; they came from every 
quarter of the peninsula; and they were all ani- 
mated by the loftiest of enthusiasms. As Tre- 
velyan truly says: "Too rarely does an emotion 
like this, pure of self-interest and far above blind 
race-hatred, sweep along with it a whole people, 
lifting common men into an atmosphere which 
they seldom breathe, and never breathe for long."^ 

' Op.cit.yC. X. 



314 Cavour 

Garibaldi made first for the Straits of Piombino, 
where he was joined by a band of Tuscan volun- 
teers with whom he had made an appointment for 
that spot. On the morning of the 7th he an- 
chored off Talamona. By the diplomatic ability 
of the Hungarian colonel Ttirr, who was taking 
part in the expedition, he obtained from the 
Piedmontese commander of the neighbouring 
fortress of Orbetello the munitions that were 
necessary, and a few small cannon, long out of 
date. While organizing his volunteers in com- 
panies. Garibaldi thought fit to send a detachment 
of some sixty men to threaten the Papal States, 
and so to divert the attention of the Powers and 
give an impression that the expedition was di- 
rected against the Pope. Ten days later these 
volunteers passed the papal frontier, but they 
were attacked near Acquapendente by the papal 
gendarmes and speedily took refuge in Tuscany, 
where the Italian government disarmed them. 
Some of them afterwards rejoined Garibaldi in 
Sicily. 

On the morning of May 9th the Lomhardo and 
the Piemonte weighed anchor at Talamona and 
resumed their voyage towards Sicily, holding 
away, however, from the ordinary route so as to 
elude the Bourbon vessels which stood across it 
with the intention of preventing the expected 
disembarkation. They sighted Sicily on May 
nth; they were then off Marsala. Garibaldi had 
at first meant to land in the neighbourhood of 



Heroic Enterprise of the "Thousand" 315 

Sciacca; instead he decided to attempt the dis- 
embarkation at once, so as to avoid the risk of 
discovery that would be run by saiHng some dis- 
tance round the island. On entering the harbour 
of Marsala he found two English warships — the 
Argus and the Intrepid, detached from the Palermo 
squadron to protect British interests. Two Nea- 
politan cruisers had left the harbour a little before, 
for the express purpose of watching the coasts. 
In less than two hours a great part of the Gari- 
baldini disembarked, under the intelligent direc- 
tion of Tiirr; but suddenly the two Neapolitan 
cruisers hove into sight, and no sooner got within 
range than they began a bombardment of the 
Garibaldian vessels, and of the shore where the 
volunteers had landed. Their grape-shot, how- 
ever, scarcely even passed the line of the mole, 
so that it served merely to strike terror into the 
popiilation of the city without doing grave damage. 
The captain of one of the English warships went 
on board one of the Bourbon cruisers, and called 
upon her commander to respect the English ware- 
houses and buildings, over all of which the British 
flag was flying ; and during this short interval even 
the remaining volunteers landed from their ships, 
with all their munitions. Thus the Bourbon 
sailors had to content themselves with leading 
away captive the empty Piemonte; the Lomhardo 
had foundered and was left in the harbour. 

At daybreak next morning the Thousand 
marched to Salemi, where Garibaldi published a 



3i6 Cavour 

proclamation to the effect that he assumed the 
dictatorship of Sicily in Victor Emmanuel's name. 
It was there that the first bands of the Sicilian 
insurgents hastened to him. But between him and 
the capital there stood a Bourbon army much more 
numerous than his, and better armed. On May 
15th he boldly attacked it at Calatafimi. The 
Bourbonists held a good strategic position, and 
they resisted so stoutly that at one point Nino 
Bixio, though second to one alone of the Thousand 
in courage, turned to Garibaldi and said: "I 
fear we shall have to retreat." Garibaldi's answer 
was resolute: "Here we make Italy or die!" 
For he saw that a retreat would have meant the 
end of the enterprise. In the end the volunteers 
managed to win the hilltop, and the defeated 
enemy beat a hasty retreat to Palermo. Gari- 
baldi pursued them in his turn, but when he came 
within sight of the capital he manoeuvred cleverly 
round the hills which encircle the city, and enticed 
a great part of the garrison to come out and follow 
in pursuit.^ Then, eluding them, he led the pick 
of his men along difficult by-ways to Palermo, and 
on May 27th forced his way victoriously into the 
city with a gallant bayonet charge. He occupied 
the most important points of the city, while the 
Bourbons bombarded the chief streets from the 
castle and the fleet. Aided by the population of 

^ Rosalino Pilo, who had hurried with his companions to join 
the Garibaldian bands, lost his life in the skirmishing of those 
days between the Garibaldini and the Bourbon troops. 




NINO BIXIO 
From a photograph 



Heroic Enterprise of the "Thousand" 317 

Palermo, the volunteers threw up barricades and 
offered a front to the enemy, who after some days 
of fierce fighting saw that they must ask for an 
armistice, and on June 7th abandoned Palermo. 
While the Thousand were achieving these miracles 
of daring, Cavour was engaged in the less attrac- 
tive task of frustrating the efforts of European 
diplomacy, which was intent on putting a stop 
to the revolution. But when events had developed 
he was able to act more openly. After the taking 
of Palermo he was liberal in assistance; on June 
9th another expedition set out from Genoa, under 
the leadership of Medici. 

By this time the revolution had spread all 
through the island. The Bourbon troops were 
concentrated at Milazzo. After receiving further 
reinforcements brought up by Cosenz, Garibaldi 
marched to attack them and won a fresh victory 
(July 20th). 

From the first. King Francis II. had violently 
protested against the conduct of the Piedmontese 
government, which he declared to be an accomplice 
of these acts of "savage piracy." Afterwards, in 
the hope of yet saving his throne, he brought him- 
self to grant a constitution and to promise that 
he would make an alliance with Piedmont, though 
nobody believed in the sincerity of his promises. 
However, King Victor Emmanuel, to make a show 
of complying with the desires of Napoleon III., 
whose ill-humour had been excited by the turn 
of events, was obliged to write an official letter to 



3i8 Cavour 

Garibaldi, inviting him to refrain from passing 
the straits. But at the same time Cavour 
sent word to Garibaldi, through Admiral 
Persano, that the enterprise could not stop 
half-way; in fact, feeling no scruple in has- 
tening the fall of a dynasty which had always 
employed perfidy against the Liberals and had 
shown itself fiercely hostile to the House of 
Savoy, he even tried to make the insurrection 
break out in Neapolitan territory before Gari- 
baldi got there. 

During the night of August 19th Garibaldi 
crossed the Straits of Messina and landed in Cala- 
bria, while the rimible of revolution was heard 
in the Basilicata. A dry-rot had spread through 
all the State; the troops sent against Garibaldi 
dispersed ; revolutionary committees arose on every 
side and made themselves masters of the adminis- 
tration ; that corrupt and corrupting government 
which had been so vigorously described by Glad- 
stone melted away miserably. Garibaldi, leaving 
his troops behind and accompanied only by a few 
officers, advanced rapidly towards Naples — ac- 
claimed by the people as their liberator. King 
Francis II. left Naples on the evening of September 
6th, and withdrew to Gaeta; and at mid-day on 
the 7th Garibaldi made his triumphant entry into 
the capital. 

With the successes of Garibaldi s5nichronized 
new audacities on the part of Cavour; he induced 




WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE 

From the engraving by D. J. Pound 

After the photo by Mayall 



Heroic Enterprise of the ''Thousand" 319 

the King to carry out the enterprise of the 
Marches and Umbria. Already during the war 
of the previous year these provinces had re- 
belled against the Pope, to the cry of Long Live 
Victor Emmanuel! But the movement had been 
repressed; in fact the Pope had strengthened 
himself b}^ enlisting soldiers from all parts 
of Europe, whom he put under the command 
of the French general Lamoriciere. The ex- 
cesses to which these troops readily aban- 
doned themselves made the situation still more 
strained, especially as the minds of the patriots 
were excited by the news of the adventure of 
the Thousand. On September 7th, the very 
day on which Garibaldi entered Naples, the 
Piedmontese government sent an ambassador 
to Rome to inform the Pope that Victor Em- 
manuel's heart could not be insensible to the 
massacres which the papal troops were daily 
committing in the Marches, and that if those 
mercenary forces were not disbanded he would 
feel constrained to intervene in favour of the 
inhabitants. On September nth, even before 
the receipt of the Pope's very bitter reply, 
the Italian troops, commanded by General Fanti, 
crossed the border. 

The papal army was defeated by General 
Cialdini at Castelfidardo on September i8th. 
Thereupon Lamoriciere shut himself up in Ancona,, 
which was besieged by land and blockaded by 
sea, and on the 29th of the same month was forced 



320 Cavour 

to capitulate.^ Thus in less than twenty days 
was carried out an undertaking which not 
only served to unite Romagna to Naples, but 
also gave the monarchy the prestige necessary 
for it to proceed with the direction of the 
revolution. 

While the King was taking up the command of 
these troops, and at their head was passing from 
the Marches into the Abruzzi, the last and 
bloodiest battle between the Garibaldian volim- 
teers and the Boiurbon troops was being fought 
(October ist and 2d) on the banks of the Vol- 
turno. By this time the Garibaldini numbered 
twenty -four thousand men. The troops who still 
remained faithful to the Bourbon had been con- 
centrated, to the number of fifty thousand, around 
Capua. It was a fiercely contested battle, but 
in the end victory favoured the Garibaldini. A 
few days later the inhabitants of Naples and 
Sicily, assembling for a plebiscite, declared almost 
unanimously their desire for union with the mon- 
archy of Victor Emmanuel. ^ 

Thus fell the Bourbon Kingdom of Naples. 

' The plebiscite of the Marches and Umbria was taken on 
November 4 and 5, i860. To the question, "Do you wish to 
form a part of the constitutional monarchy of King Victor 
Emmanuel II.?" 133,807 replied "Yes," and 1,212 "No" in the 
Marches; in Umbria 97,040 "Yes," and 380 "No." 

' In Sicily, 432,053 voted for union, and 667 against; in Naples, 
1,302,064 in favour, and 10,312 against. The people of the Prin- 
cipality of Benevento also took part in this plebiscite; the 
Principality was thus withdrawn from the Government of the 
Pope. 



Heroic Enterprise of the ''Thousand" 321 

Amid the general mistrust of Europe, England 
alone applauded the work of the revolution. In 
a Note written just at that time (October 27th), 
and sent to Hudson, the English ambassador at 
Turin, Lord John Russell, after recalling the Nea- 
politan revolutions of 1820 and 1848, proceeded: 
"What wonder . . . that in i860 the Neapolitans, 
full of mistrust and resentment, should throw off 
the Bourbons, as in 1688 England had thrown 
off the Stuarts? " And he concluded his argument 
with these words : 

It must be acknowledged . . . that the Italian 
revolution has been conducted with singular temper 
and forbearance. The subversion of constituted 
authority has not been followed, as is too often the 
case, by an outburst of popular vengeance. The 
extreme views of democrats have nowhere prevailed. 
Public opinion has checked the excesses of the public 
triumph. The venerated forms of constitutional 
monarchy have been associated with the name of a 
Prince who represents an ancient and glorious 
dynasty. 

Having examined the causes and attendant circum- 
stances of the revolution of Italy, Her Majesty's 
government can see no sufficient ground for the 
severe censure with which Austria, France, Prussia, 
and Russia have visited the acts of the King of 
Sardinia. Her Majesty's government will turn their 
eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a people 
building up the edifice of their liberties, and consoli- 
dating the work of their independence, amid the 
sympathies and good wishes of Europe. 



322 Cavour 

Victor Emmanuel, advancing from the Tronto 
towards Naples amid the acclamations of the 
people, met Garibaldi on October 26th, near 
Teano in the province of Caserta. The popular 
idol hastened to the meeting, saluted Victor 
Emmanuel as King of Italy, and then, in the true 
manner of an epic hero, withdrew to Caprera, 
leaving the King to complete the work that he had 
so gloriously begun. Francis II. made his last 
stand at Gaeta. On February 12, 1861, after a 
siege by land and sea, he went on board a French 
vessel left at his disposal by Napoleon III., and 
took refuge in the Papal States. ^ Next day Gaeta 
surrendered. 

Amid the enormous difficulties of those times — 
difficulties increased at home by disputes with 
Garibaldi, who wished to delay the annexations 
imtil the completion of national unity, and abroad 
by the constant threat of Austrian aggression — 
Cavour was strongly lurged from every quarter 
to demand fiill powers and assume a sort of dicta- 
torship. A loyal worshipper of Liberty, he re- 
fused to apostatize from his goddess. "I think," 
he said in a letter of October, i860, "it will 
not be Italy's last title to glory, that she has 
known how to make herself a nation without 

'Francis II. lived at Rome till 1870, and afterwards went to 
Austria. He died on December 27, 1894, leaving no descendants. 
His claims were then assumed by his brother Alfonso, Count di 
Caserta, who resides at Cannes, in France. 



( 




X T3 

b o 



o ^ 

C3 -S 



Heroic Enterprise of the "Thousand" 323 

sacrificing liberty to independence." A few days 
later he confirmed this opinion in these words : 

An experience of thirteen years has convinced me that 
an honest and energetic ministry, which has nothing to 
fear from the searchlight of publicity, and refuses to be 
intimidated by the violence of extreme parties, has 
everything to gain by Parliamentary struggles. I have 
never felt so weak as when the Chamber has been closed. 

This was one of his most abiding and cherished 
convictions. Joseph Massari tells us how Cavour, 
in a conversation with a friend in April, 1857, 
expressed his ideas on the subject in the following 
lucid sentences : 

Parliamentary government, like other forms of gov- 
ernment, has its inconveniences, but in spite of those in- 
conveniences it is better than any other. I lose patience 
withsomekindsof opposition,andrepel them with spirit ; 
but on reflection I congratulate myself upon them, for 
they oblige me to explain my ideas better, and to redou- 
ble my efforts in order to win the concurrence of general 
opinion. An absolute minister commands; a constitu- 
tional minister, to be obeyed, has need to persuade — 
and I wish to persuade others that I am in the right. 
Believe me, the worst of Chambers is still preferable to 
the most brilliant of the antechambers of sovereigns. 

And when, by means of the plebiscite, he had 
secured the annexation of Southern Italy, this 
truly modem statesman, who loved discussion 
and had faith in the triumph of truth, hastened 
to convoke the first Italian Parliament. 



XVIII 

THE PROCLAMATION OF THE KINGDOM OF ITALY 

O surta negli amari 
Tramiti deU'esilio, o de' sepulti 
Tra I'ume in sospettose ombre nudrita; 
Chi nel dolor t'e pari? 
Chi nella gloria? A' barbari tumulti 
Nel sol delle battaglie a pena uscita, 
Tu pugni e vinci, t'addimostri e regni, 
E novo ordin di tempi al mondo insegni. 
G. Carducci: Per la prodamazione del regno d' Italia.^ 

^ O thou who hast arisen in the thorny paths of exile, or been nurtured 
among the dead within the urns amid the shadows of distrust, who is thine 
equal in sorrow? Or who in glory? Scarce gone forth to the fierce tumults 
of the day of battles, thou art conquering in the fight; thy voice and thy 
rule tell the world of a new age. — For the Proclamation of the Kingdom of 
Italy. 



325 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE PROCLAMATION OF THE KINGDOM OF ITALY 

Opening of the first Italian Parliament — Proclamation of the 
Kingdom of Italy — Indignation of Austria and of the Pope — 
Cavour and the reconstruction of the Ministry — First seeds 
sown for the conquest of Venetia. 

WITHIN less than two years, the little State of 
Piedmont had been transformed into a 
kingdom of twenty-two million inhabitants, and 
to the eyes of the whole civilized world — still full 
of surprise, even of amazement — there suddenly 
appeared the radiant figure of an Italy risen again 
to a new life. 

On February i8, 1861, the first Italian Parlia- 
ment assembled at Turin. All the most illustrious 
personalities of the peninsula sat in it.^ In his 
inaugural address King Victor Emmanuel devoted 
some special words of gratitude to England : 

The government and people of England, that 
ancient home of liberty, nobly affirmed our right to 
be the arbiters of our own fate, and they were liberal 
to us in their good offices, the grateful memory of 
which will endure imperishably. 

^ After the latest annexations the number of Deputies had been 
raised to four hundred and forty -three. 

327 



328 Cavour 

Though he ruled over most of Italy, Victor 
Emmanuel, officially, was simply King of Sardinia. 
Hence one of the first acts of the government was 
to bring before Parliament a Bill to declare 
Victor Emmanuel King of Italy. The Bill reflected 
the general wish, and it met with no opposition, 
though a few criticisms on points of form were 
offered. In the Senate, Pareto suggested that the 
initiative ought to have come from the country and 
not from the government, so that the title might 
seem to have been given rather than assumed; 
and that it would be better for Victor Emmanuel to 
be called King of the Italians than King of Italy. 
Cavour replied that the government had only been 
the mouthpiece of the nation; "the initiative has 
been taken by the people, which at this hour has 
already saluted, and intends always to salute, Victor 
Emmanuel II. as King of Italy." He added that 
the title King of Italy was preferable "because it 
consecrates the fact that Italy has become a nation 
— ^that this (I might say) despised and neglected 
country, whose existence as a body politic was inso- 
lently denied by nearly all the politicians of Europe, 
has been transformed into the Kingdom of Italy." 

In the Chamber of Deputies, the opposition, 
besides making comments similar to those of 
Pareto in the Senate, expressed disapproval of the 
phrase "by the grace of God" which occurred in 
the proposed inscription of the decrees, and they 
objected also that the King ought to be described 
as Victor Emmanuel I. But the ministers replied 



Kingdom of Italy Proclaimed 329 

that although the old phrase "b}^ the grace of 
God" was preserved out of respect for the senti- 
ments of a large part of the country, the words 
"by the will of the nation" had been added by 
way of asserting the popular sovereignty ; and that 
in the House of Savoy, when changes of title had 
been made, from Counts to Dukes and from Dukes 
to Kings, it had not been the custom to alter the 
numeral: thus the first Duke had retained the 
name Amadeus VIII. and the first King that of 
Victor Amadeus II. Moreover it was known that 
the King wished to preserve both the phrase and 
the number in his titles; consequently the opposi- 
tion offered no great resistance. On March 14th 
(the King's birthday) the two hundred and ninety- 
four Deputies present in the Chamber unanimously 
passed the Bill, amid the hearty cheers of the Depu- 
ties themselves and of the public in the galleries. 

It must have been with emotion that the King, on 
March 1 7, 1 861 , put his signature to the new decree : 

VICTOR EMMANUEL II 

By the grace of God 

King of Sardinia, of Cyprus, and of Jerusalem 

Duke of Savoy and of Genoa 

Prince of Piedmont, etc., etc. 

The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies have 

approved, 

We sanction and promulgate, the following: — 
Article one: Victor Emmanuel II. assumes for 

himself and his successors the title of King of Italy. 



330 Cavour 

Only twelve years had passed since the day 
when he received the ancient crown of Savoy on 
the bloody field of Novara. Surely at that mo- 
ment there must have appeared before his mind the 
sad figure of Charles Albert, who from his youth 
up had cherished ambitious dreams of glory, but 
had found them issue in nothing save disillusions, 
bitternesses, misfortunes. Perhaps he recalled, 
too, the difficult beginnings of his own reign. With 
just pride he could review his past. For he had 
known how to resist reactionary temptations; 
he had completely understood his times and 
Piedmont's mission; and in consequence he had 
won the enthusiastic devotion of his country. 
Now the whole Italian people acclaimed and 
blessed him. He was in the prime of life — forty- 
one years old. Below the average in height, 
rather stout and bull-necked, his face distinguished 
by those heavy moustaches which had become 
proverbial, he certainly was not a handsome man. 
But common sympathies made his countenance 
dear to all ; in it everyone read clearly that honesty 
of will and uprightness of purpose which had won 
for him the name Re Galantuomo. 

The proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy had 
naturally aroused the violent indignation of 
Austria and the Pope. In an article published 
on March i6th the Gazzetta di Venezia, a faithful 
exponent of the views of the Austrian authorities, 
referred to the ancient iron crown which in 1859 
was carried from Monza to Vienna, and proceeded : 



Kingdom of Italy Proclaimed 331 

"In order to have the crown of the true Kings of 
Italy, with their rights and with the prestige of 
an unbroken past and of an unfaiHng future, it 
is necessary to come and seize it." And it ended 
with these words : 

If the hour should come — and it can, nay will, 
come — for the final rendering of accounts, it would 
gratify us exceedingly that the ever-welcome Victor 
should attend before a European congress (a tribunal 
Emmanuel II., of the respectable race of Savoy, 
smaller than the populace, but more competent and 
more serious), and should there beg once more, as 
in 1815, to retain at least the inheritance of his ances- 
tors. In that case, as a wholesome hint to himself 
and his successors in the honourable assertion of 
royal sway, it would not be unfitting to preserve to 
them the title of King of Italy, side by side with those, 
which they have always retained, of King of Cyprus 
and King of Jerusalem. 

The same insolence towards the House of Savoy 
was shown, a few days later, by the Jesuit review, 
the Civiltd Cattolica: "The Act, however, does 
not say for how long the King will assume this 
title, or whether he intends to assume it as he 
does the old titles of King of Cyprus and King of 
Jerusalem." As to the phrase "by the grace of 
God," the CiviltcL Cattolica added: "It is a 
mockery of God to pretend that by His grace the 
legitimate Princes could be despoiled, her patri- 
mony taken from the Church, and the temporal 
power from the Vicar of Jesus Christ." 



332 Cavour 

But if at Rome and Venice the ruling powers 
spoke in this fashion, the peoples of both regions, 
though tortured by the consciousness that they 
were still severed from their great common mother, 
welcomed the proclamation of the new kingdom 
as a sure promise of speedy restoration. 

Meanwhile England, ever favourable to the 
Italian cause, immediately recognized the new 
kingdom, and a little later it was acknowledged 
also by the United States of America and by 
Switzerland. 

Cavour thought it a good constitutional rule 
that the ministry should resign after the proclama- 
tion of the Kingdom of Italy. The King, to whom 
Cavour's omnipotence was becoming a little 
wearisome, offered the Presidency of the Council 
to Ricasoli, but on his refusing it his Majesty 
readily understood that nobody save Cavour was 
able to occupy the post. He entrusted to Cavour, 
therefore, the reconstruction of the ministry. 
On March 226. Cavour had already formed it, 
retaining for himself the portfolios of foreign 
affairs and marine. 

The most difficult period for Cavour was past. 
Everyone felt that he would now be able to pro- 
ceed with greater ease to the completion of his 
prodigious task. He enjoyed an immense prestige 
throughout Europe, for he was universally ac- 
knowledged to be the most powerful statesman of 
the day. The Italians had boundless faith in his 



Kingdom of Italy Proclaimed 333 

success, and he himself had acquired a confidence 
even greater than before in his own intellectual 
power. 

Two grave questions still remained — ^those of 
Rome and Venetia; and Cavour now devoted 
himself to their solution. 

In order to prepare the way for the conquest 
of Venetia, he turned his attention to Prussia. 
Early in 1861, when he despatched General La 
Marmora to congratulate King William on his 
accession to the throne, he instructed him to 
inform the Prussian government that "by reason 
of the analogies which exist between the historical 
tendencies of Prussia and those of Piedmont, the 
Italians are accustomed to consider Prussia as a 
natural ally." At the same time that he was 
sowing these seeds for the future, Cavour was 
keeping in touch with the revolutionary forces 
of Hungary, and in a conversation that he held 
during the spring of 1861 with Kossuth, the great 
dictator of 1849, with the object of reaching a 
decisive agreement, he said to him: "If God wills 
it, as the King and we ourselves will it, Venetia 
will be ours and Htmgary free — ^perhaps even 
next autumn, certainly within a year." And as 
though he wished to give Venetia some immediate 
proof that the free Italians were not halting on 
their arduous march, but were thinking of the 
liberation of their brothers who were still in servi- 
tude, he attended the inauguration, in Turin, of 
a monument to the renowned dictator Daniel 



334 Cavour 

Manin, in whom Roman valour had been joined 
to Venetian good sense. That ceremony took 
place on March 22d, a date dear to the heart of 
the Venetians, for it recalled the expulsion of the 
Austrians from their city in the revolution of 1848. 
. While he thus sent a word of encouragement 
to Venice, he faced the Roman problem with 
splendid daring. 



XIX 

cavour's last audacity 

Salve, dea Roma! Chinato ai raderi 
del F6ro, io seguo con dolci lacrime 
e adoro i tuoi sparsi vestigi, 
patria, diva, santa genitrice. 

Ecco, a te questa, che tu di Hbere 
genti facesti nome uno, Italia, 
ritorna, e s'abbraccia al tuo petto, 
aflSsa ne' tuoi d'aquila occhi. 
Carducci: NelV annuale delta fondazione di Roma.^ 

' Hail! Rome the divine — native land, goddess, holy mother. Bending 
over the ruins of the Forum I follow with tears of joy thy footprints, and 
worship as I follow them . . . Lo! this Italy, whom thou didst fashion of 
free peoples formed in one, returns to thee, nestles at thy bosom, fixes her 
eyes upon thine eagle gaze. — On the Anniversary of the Founding of Rome, 



335 



CHAPTER XIX 
cavour's last audacity 

The Roman question — Secret negotiations with the Curia — 
Discussion in the Chamber; Cavour's speeches of March 
25 and 27, 1861: free Church in free State — Rome acclaimed 
capital by Parliament — Painful dissension between Gari- 
baldi and Cavour; their reconciliation — Death of the great 
Minister Qune 6, 1861). 

THE temporal power of the Popes arose in the 
early Middle Ages, when the political unity 
of Italy was falling into ruins. It must inevitably 
disappear when the idea of union prevailed in 
the work of national reorganization. Now the 
enterprise of the Thousand had conclusively 
brought about the triumph of that idea, and 
Cavour, putting aside all doubts and fears, at 
once and resolutely affirmed it. 

On October 11, i860, just when the difficulties of 
his policy were increasing in seriousness and com- 
plexity, when the Bourbon army was still in good 
condition, when nearly all the Powers, annoyed 
at the part which Piedmont played in the expedi- 
tion of the Thousand, had recalled their representa- 
tives from Turin, and the Emperors of Austria and 
Russia and the King of Prussia were on the point 

22 337 



338 Cavour 

of meeting at Warsaw for the purpose of taking 
precautions against Italy — just then Cavour was 
going to ParHament to assert : 

"Our destiny, Gentlemen, I declare it to you 
openly, is to bring it about that the Eternal City, 
on which twenty-five centuries have heaped every 
kind of glory, shall become the splendid capital 
of the Italian Kingdom." 

And forthwith, amid all the problems that 
demanded speedy solution, he opened secret 
negotiations with the Roman Curia, by means 
of Dr. Diomede Pantaleoni and the theologian 
Passaglia, in order to reach an early settlement 
of this question. ^ He wished the first affirmation 
of the Italian Parliament to be one concerning 
Italy's rights over Rome. 

It was a memorable speech that he made to the 
Chamber upon this subject on March 25, 1861. 
Cavour was not one of those brilliant orators who 
strike the imagination and compel applause. 
He was a lucid, precise reasoner, who addressed 
himself to the reflective faculties of his audience 
and aimed at completely persuading it. Though 



' In the first sessions of the first Italian Parliament the presi- 
dency was held, in virtue of seniority, by a septuagenarian advo- 
cate of Bologna, Antonio. Zanolini, who thirty years before had 
presided over the Constituent Assembly of the United Provinces, 
and had paid for his audacity by imprisonment and exile. The 
aged patriot in resigning his position to the president-elect, 
Urbano Rattazzi (March ii, 1861), declared that Rome was 
essential to Italy. He lived to see the realization of his dream, for 
he only died in 1877, in his eighty-seventh year. 



Cavour's Last Audacity 339 

his style was sometimes lacking in colour, the 
force of his thought gave emphasis to his phrases, 
and his views were so just and lofty, and the 
reasons which he adduced were so convincing 
and followed in such logical sequence, that in the 
end he attained an extraordinary effectiveness. 

If Italy could be imagined as firmly constituted 
as one nation without Rome for her capital, I 
frankly declare that I should think the solution of 
the Roman question difficult, perhaps impossible. 
Why is it our right — nay, our duty — to request, to 
insist, that Rome shall be reunited to Italy? Be- 
cause, without Rome for her capital, Italy cannot 
be constituted. 

When you ask the Pope to make the concessions 
to civil society which are demanded by the nature 
of the times and by the progress of civilization, but 
which are in opposition to the positive precepts 
of the religion whose sovereign Pontiff he is, you 
are asking him for something that he is unable to 
give and that he ought not to give. 

In his speech of March 27th Cavour stated 
his view with still greater precision. Apostro- 
phizing the Pontiff he said: 

I do not reproach you when you refuse to pro- 
claim religious liberty, or freedom of education; I 
understand your attitude. You have to teach 
certain doctrines, and therefore you cannot say 
that it may be well for all kinds of doctrine to be 
taught. You cannot accept the advice of your 



340 Cavour 

bona-fide friends, for they ask of you what you are 
unable to give. And you are constrained to remain 
in this abnormal condition as father of the faith- 
ful, forced to keep the people under the yoke by 
the help of foreign bayonets. 

When he had demonstrated the necessity for 
abolishing the temporal power, Cavour paused to 
describe the new position of the Pope. Believing 
in the miracles of Liberty, he wished to apply to the 
relations of Church and State the same principles 
that guided all his policy ; and with lofty eloquence 
he asserted that the true solution of the question 
was to be found in the absolute separation of the 
two powers. As long ago as the year 1848 he had 
set forth this firm conviction of his in the early 
numbers of his newspaper II Risorgimento; it was, 
he said, the inevitable consequence of new times 
and new ideas. If the temple of the individual 
conscience was to be sacred and inviolable, if the 
exercise of the rights of citizenship was not to 
depend upon the form of religion, then necessarily 
the power of the State and the power of the 
Church must be entirely distinct and each per- 
fectly independent of the other. 

In the speech of March 27th he summed up 
his view in the formula A free Church in a free 
State, and concluded his argument thus: 

I will point out, in proof of the sincerity of our 
proposals, that they are in conformity with our whole 
system. We hold that the system of liberty ought to 



dim Di TORm 



CONtlTTiU)l\I. 

a OiuDla Diunicipale da auounzio cbe reeherani immeoso dolore, 
;he e una sciagura oaziouale. 

I €oD(e CiHILLO BCNSO DI CiVOLR, Presideole del Gonsiglio dei 
islri. ha eessalo di >ivere! 

•ueslo e giorno di cosleruaziooe e di lotto per ehiunque desidera 
inia ia likrta e la gloria della comuoe Fatria: ma noo vi lasciate 
oro dalla sfidueta e dairabbaltioiento. La eostanza e la fermezza 
i SYenliire sono le tirtii dei Popoli forli e generosi; e gia Voi ue 
e altre volte spleodide prove. 

a Divina Provvidenza, cbe ha eon taula ricchezza di avvenimenti 
Iralo di voter serbare la Kazione ad un glorioso avyenire, non per- 
era cbe la grande opera iniziala dairillustre nostro Coneittadino, di 
deplorianio la perdita, rimanga ino^mpiuta. 
CO^CITT^Dlf^l abbiamo fede nei destini d'ltalia. 

lino. M palazzo della Ciltii, add) 6 giugnt 1861. 



Per la Giunla 



IL SI\DACO 

A. DI COSSILLA 



// Segrelario 

C. FAVA 



FACSIMILE OF THE PROCLAMATION OF THE DEATH OF CAVOUR 



Cavour's Last Audacity 341 

be introduced into every part of religious and civil 
society. We desire economic liberty; we desire 
administrative liberty; we desire full and absolute 
liberty of conscience ; we desire all the political liberties 
that are compatible with the maintenance of public 
order; and as a necessary consequence we believe it 
to be essential to the harmony of the edifice which we 
wish to raise, that the principle of liberty should be 
applied to the relations of Church and State. . . . 
These truths will be accepted by public opinion; 
without being able to foresee how much time it will 
take for them to acquire irresistible force, I think 
I am not deceiving myself when I declare that, in an 
age in which even the intellectual world makes use 
of the locomotive, these ideas will not have to wait 
long for general adoption. 

Terenzio Mamiani, who was present at this 
sitting, has described the impression produced by 
Cavour's words : 

Before the tumultuous cheers broke out, long sus- 
tained and renewed again and again, there was a 
moment of profound and solemn silence, such as 
marks that condition of sublime wonder by which all 
the powers of the mind are sometimes absorbed and 
subdued. Then on every side faces shone with 
sudden and unspeakable joy; it seemed to illuminate 
them like a supernal light flashing within the soul. 
At one moment the minister's voice seemed to become 
superhuman, solemnly announcing to men that the 
times were ripe for liberty of conscience — rather for 
complete liberty of the spirit in thought, works, faith, 
judgment, in the inward and the outer life. 



342 Cavour 

The debate ended on March 27th with the 
almost unanimous approval of an order of the 
day in which Rome was acclaimed capital of 
Italy. This declaration marks a decisive date in 
history, for thus the precise object to be attained 
was set before the Italian people, and the firm 
resolution to pursue it unwaveringly was impressed 
upon the national conscience. 

Cavour had spoken too strongly, and he was 
too much accustomed to announce the goal which 
he proposed to reach. It was not to be expected 
that the negotiations which he had already begun 
with the Pope and Napoleon III. would lead to a 
swift solution of the problem. 

About this time a regrettable incident cast 
a shadow over his mind. The position which 
should be given to the Garibaldian officers who 
had entered the regular army was under considera- 
tion. It seemed to some of them that the govern- 
ment took too little account of their work, and 
they excited Garibaldi against Cavour, probing 
the wound, not yet healed, that had been inflicted 
on him by the cession of Nice to France. Gari- 
baldi hurried to Turin. In a painful sitting of 
the Chamber he expressed violent criticisms on 
the ministry's work, and declared that it would 
be too repugnant to him to shake hands with the 
man who had made him a foreigner in Italy. 

Cavour knew how to restrain his fiery temper. 
Realizing the great harm that would accrue to 



Cavour's Last Audacity 343 

Italy from strife between himself and Garibaldi, 
he suppressed all personal resentment, but his 
voice betra3^ed emotion as he replied: 

I know that a certain event has placed a gulf be- 
tween Garibaldi and myself. I believed that I was 
discharging a painful duty — the most painful that 
I have ever performed — in advising the King and mov- 
ing Parliament to approve the cession of Nice and 
Savoy to France. The grief which I have experienced 
enables me to understand that which General Gari- 
baldi must have felt, and if he declines to forgive me 
for this action I do not blame him. 

And then he proceeded calmly to refute the 
criticisms which had been passed on the ministry. 

The King was distressed by this dispute between 
the two greatest personages of Italy. He tried 
to bring about a reconciliation, and succeeded in 
arranging an interview between them in a salon 
of the royal palace at Turin. At that colloquy 
Cavour explained the line of action which he 
intended to follow with regard both to Austria 
and to France, and Garibaldi expressed approval 
of his programme. "We separated," wrote Ca- 
vour in a letter of April 27, 1861, "if not friends, 
at least without nursing any resentment." A 
little later, in fact, Garibaldi wrote to Cavour 
(May 18, 1861) : 

Let Victor Emmanuel be the arm of Italy, and 
you the brain. Trusting in your superior capacity 
and firm desire to promote the welfare of the coun- 



344 Cavour 

try, I shall await the welcome voice that will call 
me once again to the field of battle. 

But by this time Cavour had lost his health; he 
was worn out by the labours and the constant 
mental strain of the past years. His intimates 
noticed that his disposition had changed; instead 
of showing his wonted cheerfulness and vivacity, 
he now appeared to be moody and taciturn. On 
May 29, 1 86 1, he was stricken with fever. After 
repeated bleedings he seemed to rally. He wished 
still to occupy himself with public affairs, and on 
June 1st the Council of Ministers assembled 
around his bed. Next day the fever returned 
with increased violence. 

When this news ran through Turin the gloomiest 
anxiety fell upon the whole body of citizens. The 
Cavour Palace and the neighbouring places were 
thronged by a silent and sorrowing crowd who 
watched for some glimmer of hope. But Cavour's 
condition became gradually worse. Often he was 
delirious ; at these times he spoke always of politics, 
expressing his firm faith in Italy's future. The 
cure of his parish, a good Franciscan friar (Fr. 
Giacomo Odenino), who was bound b}'' ties of 
friendship to the Cavour family, hastened to 
administer the last sacraments to the dying man. 
Hence were avoided the serious misfortunes that 
would certainly have befallen the clergy of Turin 
upon such a refusal as the priests had made to the 
Minister Santarosa. But the Roman Curia had 



Cavour's Last Audacity 345 

desired and hoped for a scandal. Angered by the 
friar's action, it summoned him to Rome, deprived 
him of his parish, suspended him from the exer- 
cise of spiritual fimctions, and sent him to end his 
days in a remote monastery. 

At 6.45 on the morning of June 6, 1861, the 
great minister breathed his last. King Victor 
Emmanuel, who a little before had gone to his 
bedside to bid him farewell, desired that his 
remains shoiild rest in the church of Superga, 
beside the tombs of the House of Savoy. It was 
a noble and becoming thought; but Cavour had 
arranged that his bones should be buried in the 
tomb of his family in the village of Santena, near 
Chieri, and his wishes were respected. 

Cavour was highly favoured by nature, for in 
him a warm and generous disposition was joined 
to extraordinary intellectual power. Even to- 
day the remembrance of his policy captivates 
and exalts us, not merely by reason of the great 
results that were achieved with the scanty means 
at his disposal, but also by reason of the noble 
sentiments which directed it, the winning geniality 
which illuminated it, and the firmly grounded 
idea of liberty, widely interpreted and realized 
under every form, which he put at the base of the 
Italian Risorgimento. 

He knew how to unite in the pursuit of a single 
purpose the most dissimilar elements of the nation, 
and he did not disdain to avail himself of the 



346 Cavour 

Mazzinists and the Garibaldians ; rather, accept- 
ing a part of their ideas, he succeeded in fusing 
together the aspirations of all. Thus in a 
few years the great Italian dream became a 
reality. 

On the occasion of the centenary of Cavour's 
birth, Luigi Luzzatti, the distinguished thinker 
who at that time was President of the Coimcil of 
Ministers, delivered a striking address at Turin — 
in the historic hall of the Palazzo Madama. 
Referring to the comparsion which has been so 
often drawn between Cavour and Bismarck, he 
emphasized the greater difficulties which the 
Italian statesm^an had to face: 



Germany had been already freed by the Reforma- 
tion, by Kant, by Goethe, by Schiller, by the na- 
tional war against Napoleon I. and France; moral 
and religious idealism had influenced her before 
that of politics; her lands were free from the 
foreigner. Italy was divided ; humiliated by a two- 
fold tyranny, civil and ecclesiastical; her best pro- 
vinces subject to foreign domination. 

Prussia, the leader of Germany, had eighteen million 
inhabitants, and a formidable army long prepared 
for the hour of deliverance. Little Piedmont was 
wonderfully daring and strong, but always little. 

The Germans sufficed to liberate Germany. The 
Piedmontese diplomatist had to gain the material aid 
of France for the redemption of the country without 
diminishing its autonomy or its prestige. 

The German Chancellor, when he had won the 




i I'- 
ll I 

•c fa 



Cavour's Last Audacity 347 

confidence of his King, had at his command the 
army trained by Moltke, The Italian minister 
had to work with forces that were valuable but 
distinct and independent. How often were the minds 
of the Italians convulsed with fear lest a collision 
of the two great stars of our national Risorgi- 
mento, Cavour and Garibaldi, should shatter into 
fragments the new edifice of the country! But 
the sovereign and magnetic influence of Victor 
Emmanuel II. kept them in their orbits. Never since 
the days of ancient Rome had Italy's sun shone 
upon such saviours of peoples as Garibaldi and Cavour 
— men of antique pride who yet increased their dig- 
nity by bowing before the majesty of the great King, 
because they realized that so they were doing homage 
to their country. 

Cavour, in order to succeed, had to create a new 
public law in Europe, to solve the universal problem 
of the Papacy, and first to make his audacious revolt 
against an antiquated and suspicious diplomacy, 
which since 1815 had sought to do what fortunately 
for us was impossible — to crush the spirit of the free 
peoples. 

German unity was achieved after Italy had set 
a happy example, after Cavour had opened the 
way. And although the means which the German 
Chancellor had at his disposal were great as com- 
pared with those employed by Cavour, Bismarck 
did not establish political unity as it was established 
in Italy — by destroying seven States and fusing them 
together. 

Moreover the greater difficulties of Cavour's 
magnum opus arose from a method that was es- 
sentially different from Bismarck's. Italy was 



348 Cavour 

made by liberty, Germany by authority. Bismarck 
exercised in consummate fashion the dictatorship 
entrusted to him by his King and Emperor. As 
the minister, responsible to Parliament, of a con- 
stitutional King proclaimed by plebiscites, Cavour, 
struggling and conquering all his life long, exercised 
a national dictatorship by his powers of persuasion. 




THE HALL AND STAIRS IN THE PALAZZO MADAMA, TURIN 
From a photo by Brogi 



XX 



THE COMPLETION OF NATIONAL UNITY 

Sola una mente e un' anima 
Tutta r Italia accende: 
Leva, o stranier, le tende! 
II regno tuo cesso. 

E tu, signer de' liberi, 
Re de I'ltalia armato, 
Ne i voti del senato, 
Ne '1 grido popolar, 

Sorgi, Vittorio: a Tultima 
Gloria de' regi ascendi; 
Al popolo distendi 
La mano, ed a I'acciar. 

Carducci: II Plebiscito.^ 

» A single mind, a single soul, illumines all Italy. Strike thy tents, O 
foreigner! Thy sway has ceased. And thou, lord of the free, Italy's sol- 
dier-King, by the votes of the Senate, by the people's cry, rise, Victor: 
ascend to the highest honour of Kings; stretch out thine hand to the people* 
and to the sword. — The Plebiscite. 



349 



CHAPTER XX 

THE COMPLETION OF NATIONAL UNITY 

Internal difi&culties of the new Kingdom — The Roman question: 
Aspromonte; the convention of September 15, 1864; removal 
of the capital to Florence — The war of 1866 and the annexa- 
tion of Venetia — Garibaldi in the Papal States; intervention 
of the French, and battle of Mentana — Occupation of Rome 
(September 20, 1870) — The Law of Guarantees — Removal 
of the capital to Rome — Conclusion. 

THE difficulties of the new kingdom were 
grave indeed. Four dynasties, those of 
Naples, Tuscany, Modena and Parma, aspired 
to the recovery of their lost thrones. The Papacy 
exerted its whole strength to throw down the new 
edifice. From the fortresses of the Quadrilateral, 
Austria kept a threatening eye on the new king- 
dom. Napoleon IH. was checked in his policy 
of favouring Italy by the Clericalism which was 
dominant at his Court. And while nearly all the 
States of Europe were watching with distrust an 
Italy awakened to new life, the Garibaldian party 
was impatient to wrest Rome from the Pope and 
Venetia from Austria. 

Besides these serious problems of foreign politics, 
there were all the difficult internal questions con- 
351 



352 Cavour 

nected with the fusing of the populatiors of the 
various regions. Those who were now gathering 
together to form a single family were all Italian 
citizens, but how great were their diversities! 
First and foremost came racial differences; for 
even without going back to pre-Roman origins, 
and even admitting that during the long period of 
Roman domination the various peoples of Italy- 
were fused into a single type, it remains that this 
type was modified by fresh elements which came 
in afterwards; in particular the Lombards at the 
North, and the Byzantines and Arabs at the 
South, left clearly visible traces. And these 
diversities were long preserved, both by the 
historical circumstances which kept the various 
regions apart for so many centuries, and also by 
the geographical conformation of the country. 
Hence the civilization of each region had developed 
along different lines, and at the moment of union 
had reached a different stage of progress. Respect 
for tradition seemed to counsel an administrative 
organization based on the regions, and a Bill of 
that character was drawn up by the minister 
Minghetti while Cavour was yet alive. But the 
fear that local feeling might acquire ascendency 
over national sentiment, and the necessity of 
concentrating all forces and resources, and also 
of acting with greater energy in places where the 
local institutions were inefficient, led to the adop- 
tion, as a preferable alternative, of the centralized 
regime of the French. The kingdom was split 



The Completion of National Unity 353 

up into smaller divisions, called provinces, each 
under a prefect representing the central govern- 
ment. This was perhaps a necessity in view of 
the amazing rapidity with which the Kingdom of 
Italy had been formed. 

One serious embarrassment for the new kingdom 
arose from brigandage. Brigandage had been 
the permanent scourge of the Southern provinces, 
both because of the extreme misery of their 
peasantry, who by taking to the country tried to 
escape from hunger and from the constant op- 
pression of their landlords, and also because the 
governments of the South had never been very 
strong or much respected. Moreover the lack 
of roads and habitations in the country districts 
favoured its growth. And now, when the South- 
ern army was melting away, and the old adminis- 
tration was disappearing and the new was not yet 
formed, brigandage flourished the more; it as- 
sumed, in fact, a political complexion, for King 
Francis II. of Naples began to encourage it in the 
hope of yet recovering his throne. To stamp out 
the pest the Italian government had to use force 
and money — to pass terrible laws and to apply 
them relentlessly. But it was a long struggle, for 
whenever the brigands found themselves closely 
pursued they sought an easy refuge in the Papal 
States. 

Another and not less troublesome problem was 
that of finance. The eminent patriot Valentino 
Pasini, calculating the revenues of the various 



354 ' Cavour 

governments which formed the new kingdom, 
found that the normal income of the State would 
be some five hundred million lire. But the regular 
expenditure was twice as much, and it was found 
impossible to reduce it, though every attempt at 
economy was made. And naturally so; for it 
was necessary not only to reorganize the whole 
administration of the country, but also to promote 
commercial and industrial development by im- 
proving the means of communication; to combat 
ignorance by increasing the provision for public 
education; to maintain the army in strength, and 
to form a fleet in readiness to meet the difficulties 
which still stood in the way of the completion of 
national unity. Hence it may be realized that the 
financial problem long troubled the public life 
of the new kingdom. The man who may be con- 
sidered the financial liquidator of the Italian 
revolution was Quintino Sella. He was a native 
of Biella, and came of an industrial family. He 
had studied mathematics and won distinction 
in the world of science as a professor of mineralogy. 
Entering the Chamber in i860, when only thirty- 
three years of age, he quickly acquired great 
influence by the precision and clearness of his 
ideas, and two years later he became Minister of 
Finance. He held the same ofiice again several 
times in later years. All possible means of equal- 
izing revenue and expenditure were adopted; the 
public debt was increased; existing taxes were 
raised and new ones created. It is to Sella's 



The Completion of National Unity 355 

credit that he knew how to face unpopularity, 
though it must be acknowledged also that the 
Italian people accommodated itself with fine 
patriotism to even the heaviest of sacrifices. 

But the first place in everyone's thoughts was 
filled by the question of the completion of national 
unity. Ricasoli, who had succeeded Cavour in the 
Presidency of the Council, opened negotiations 
to solve the Roman problem, though without 
result. In 1862 his place at the head of affairs 
was taken by Rattazzi, who was attached to the 
Left and seemed more favourable to the party of 
action. Impatient of delay, and convinced that 
if they took the initiative the government would 
follow them, Garibaldi and his partisans planned 
a sudden attack on Rome. Garibaldi went to 
Sicily, the region which retained the warmest 
enthusiasm for him, and, raising the battle-cry 
Rome or death, began to enrol volunteers. At 
first the ministry refrained from interfering. 
Perhaps Rattazzi flattered himself that he might 
play, in this enterprise, the part which Cavour 
played in the expedition of the Thousand; but 
he possessed neither Cavour's capacity for extri- 
cating himself from the difficulties of the situa- 
tion, nor his prestige among the diplomats of 
Europe. Rome was still occupied by the French, 
and Napoleon III., urged on by the Clerical party, 
made it understood that he would treat the entry 
of the Garibaldini into the Papal States as a 



356 Cavour 

declaration of war by the Kingdom of Italy. 
Rattazzi was then under the painful necessity of 
stopping the revolution by force. Garibaldi, 
with two thousand five hundred volunteers, had 
already passed into Calabria. There, on the 
heights of Aspromonte, he was surrounded by a 
corps of sharpshooters. All the Italians pre- 
dicted that no blood would be shed; there was, 
however, some firing on both sides and Garibaldi 
himself was wounded (August 29, 1862). He 
was removed to the fort of Varignano, on the 
bay of Spezia; his officers and soldiers were de- 
clared prisoners of war and confined in fortresses. 
In October the marriage of the King's daughter 
Maria Pia to King Luis of Portugal offered the 
government an opportunity of granting an amnesty 
for these acts, and Garibaldi thereupon returned 
to Caprera. 

While the undecided policy of the govern- 
ment was causing profound dissatisfaction in the 
country, Joseph Mazzini ardently renewed his 
propaganda. *'We shall never get Rome," he 
declared from his exile in London, "until we have 
got Venice — until we have broken the power of 
Austria." He concentrated his whole effort upon 
the organizing of insurrection committees in 
Venetia, trusting that after insurrection had 
broken out the Italian government would be 
constrained to undertake the war. On this 
occasion he found a powerful supporter of his 
designs in Victoi Emmanuel himself, who, annoyed 




BARON E BETTINO RICASOLI 
From a contemporary print, i860 



The Completion of National Unity 357 

by the timidity of his ministry (of which Minghetti 
was then President), entered into communication 
with the famous revolutionist by means of a secret 
agent. 

On his part also Garibaldi was thinking of the 
liberation of Venice. He believed he could make 
use of the great sympathy which the English 
people were showing towards him, to put pressure 
on the English government and to induce it to 
give him support and money for the war with 
Austria. Under the pretext of consulting the 
celebrated English surgeons about his wound, 
he set out for England in March, 1864. There 
all classes of society vied in demonstrating their 
admiration for him. Never had London welcomed 
a man with so great and so universal an enthusiasm 
(April II, 1864); but the English government, 
while showing him every goodwill, managed to 
divest his visit of any political character. On 
the other hand the difficulties of the international 
situation made King Victor Emmanuel hesitate 
in following the secret counsels which Mazzini 
gave him, and in May, 1864, as a consequence, 
Mazzini broke off all negotiations. But the pro- 
ject serves to show that in these two great Italians 
— the monarch and the republican — patriotism 
carried the day over every other idea. 

Meantime the question of the capital engrossed 
more and more completely the minds of the 
Italians. The Minister Minghetti hoped to satisfy 
public opinion to some extent by obtaining the 



358 Cavour 

withdrawal of the French troops that occupied 
Rome; but Napoleon III. stipulated that if he 
were to carry out this the Italian government 
should bind itself to respect, and make others 
respect, what still remained of the Papal States, 
and (as if to prove that it had renounced every 
design on Rome) should transfer the capital from 
Turin to Florence. Notwithstanding the lively 
discontent which it aroused in the country, this 
convention of September 15, 1864, was enforced; 
in 1865 the capital was moved to Florence, and 
simultaneously the withdrawal of the French 
troops from Rome was begun. 

Just at that time the Pope, who had fallen 
completely into the hands of the Jesuits, showed 
that he was moving ever farther away from 
the spirit of modem civilization. On December 8, 
1864, he published the Syllabus — an index of 
eighty propositions considered to be heretical, 
but which (said the Pope) dominated "this our 
sorrowful age." They were: liberty of thought, 
freedom of worship, the separation of Church 
and State, the civil power's independence of 
ecclesiastical power, freedom of the press and of 
teaching — in short all the positions gained by 
modern Liberalism. On its part the Italian 
government, pursuing the path of reform desired 
by the new era, dealt with the question of matri- 
mony (November 15, 1865) by making^obligatory 
the civil ceremony as distinct from the religious 
rite, which was left optional; and afterwards 




MAZZINI 
From a photo by Alinari 



The Completion of National Unity 359 

proclaimed the suppression of many religious 
corporations and proceeded to nationalize their 
property. Hence the opposition between the 
Roman Curia and the Italian government became 
more acute than ever. 

Not less strained were the relations with Austria, 
for the thought of the liberation of Venetia was 
dear to every Italian's heart. To attain this 
object an alliance with Prussia was formed. 

The great part which Cavour had played on the 
stage of European politics was soon filled by Otto 
von Bismarck, whom King William I. called to the 
head of the Prussian government in 1862. He, 
too, desired to unite and to strengthen his nation, 
and for that reason aimed at expelling Austria 
from Germany. Thus the aims of Prussia and 
the aims of Italy united the two States in a common 
hostility to Austria, even as Cavour had already 
foreshadowed. It was easy, therefore, to con- 
clude a treaty of alliance (April 8, 1866). 

Yet the war was not fortunate for the Italians. 
In the first place the grave mistake was made of 
dividing the army into two parts, so as to avoid 
wounding the susceptibilities of the two generals 
who seemed to have the best claims to the su- 
preme command — La Marmora and Cialdini. 
Most of the troops were concentrated on the banks 
of the Mincio, but a strong body, under Cialdini, 
was assembled in Ferrarese territory on the 
Lower Po, and the two commandants did not 



36o Cavour 

agree on any definite plan. On June 24th the 
battle of Custozza was fought on the heights 
between the Mincio and the Adige, but for lack 
of skilful handling scarcely a third of the Italian 
army assembled on the Mincio was able to take 
part in the struggle. The several bodies, too, 
fought confusedly and without unity of control, so 
that the fight was not so much a set battle, 
with a definite objective, as a series of discon- 
nected engagements in which the different com- 
mandants, having lost their bearings and lacking 
initiative, could do no more than give high proofs 
of individual valour. By evening the Italian 
army was beaten at all points and was obliged 
to recross the Mincio. La Marmora feared to 
renew the attack next day, and that circumstance 
enchanced the enemy's success. 

The Italians hoped that their fleet, which was 
commonly judged to be superior to that of 
Austria, would win some compensation for the 
defeat of Custozza. But it had not been properly 
equipped; and, besides, the error was committed 
of entrusting the command to Admiral Persano, 
who, although he had acquired great reputation 
with the public by taking to himself the credit 
for the achievements of others, did not enjoy the 
confidence of his officers. The result was that 
at the critical moment he lacked their cordial 
co-operation. The Austrian fleet, on the con- 
trary, was fortunate in its commander, the young 
and daring Admiral Tegetthof, who was deter- 




ENRICO CIALDINI 
From a contemporary print, 1859 



The Completion of National Unity 361 

mined to conquer or to die, and was surrounded 
by officers as bold as himself and full of confidence 
in their leader. To this fact was chiefly due the 
Austrian victory of Lissa (July 20th), though this 
engagement also was far from being a regular 
battle. Each of the Italian vessels fought on 
its own account ; in fact a part of the Italian fleet 
remained almost inert, and confined itself to 
useless firing from a great distance. At Lissa, 
as at Custozza, there were some magnificent 
examples of individual courage, nullified by in- 
competent direction. Persano was afterwards 
cashiered for incapacity. 

Meanwhile the army had again assumed the 
offensive and had entered Venetia, which by this 
time was freed from the Austrians, for they had 
been recalled to defend Vienna against the ad- 
vancing Prussians. Simultaneously the volun- 
teers, led by Garibaldi, were making their way 
victoriously into the Trentino. But news came 
that Prussia had concluded an armistice with 
Austria. For some days Italy was faced by the 
painful alternatives of accepting the armistice 
concluded by Austria or of continuing the war 
alone. The idea of peace prevailed. Austria 
promised to give up Venetia, but not the Trentino, 
and Garibaldi was therefore ordered to withdraw. 
The hero's heart bled, but he replied: "I obey." 
Napoleon III. made himself the mediator, and 
by the treaty of Prague (August 24, 1866) Austria 
ceded Venetia to the Emperor of the French, who 



362 Cavour 

in turn ceded it to Victor Emmanuel after taking 
a plebiscite of the inhabitants. Here, too, there 
was virtual unanimity in favour of annexation to 
the rest of Italy (647,246 votes to 69), and on 
November 7, 1866, Venice gave King Victor 
Emmanuel a triumphant welcome.'^ 

About that time Napoleon III. withdrew his 
last troops from Rome, and the papal government 
was left to face its subjects unaided. Secret 
committees were formed in Rome with the object 
of provoking an insurrection, but they seemed to 
be inept and irresolute, and for this reason the 
Garibaldian party in the kingdom showed a 
determination to precipitate events by means of 
an expedition. Urbano Rattazzi was again at the 
head of the government, and the Garibaldini 
feared no opposition from that quarter. By 
September of 1867 the preparations for the move- 
ment were already far advanced ; many volunteers 
were making their way in little groups towards 
the papal border, where they were to be organized 
into companies. So far the Italian government 
had refrained from interfering, for it hoped that 
in the end France would adapt herself to accom- 
plished facts. But the violent protests of the 
Clericals led Napoleon III. to threaten armed 
intervention. The Italian government there- 
upon arrested Garibaldi, who had already gone 

' Austria also restored to Italy the famous iron crown; it was 
carried back to Monza from Vienna. 



The Completion of National Unity 363 

close to the papal boundary, and sent him to 
Caprera. 

Yet even in Garibaldi's absence the organiza- 
tion of companies of volunteers went on; and 
early in October they penetrated into the Papal 
States. In Rome itself a rising was then at- 
tempted, but it was speedily quenched in blood. 
Hoping to find the city still in revolt, the brothers 
Enrico and Giovanni Cairoli, with some seventy 
companions, descended the Tiber to a point within 
two miles of Rome, but there, near a villa called 
Glori, they were attacked by a strong company 
of Papalists, and the whole seventy fell dead or 
wounded. 

Though kept under surveillance by order of the 
government, Garibaldi managed to get away 
from Caprera, and went to put himself at the 
head of the armed bands already assembled. 
Thereupon Napoleon III., who, under pressure 
from the French Clericals, had prepared a fleet 
at Toulon, gave orders that it should sail for 
Civita Vecchia. Garibaldi, having crossed the 
border, met the papal troops at Monterotondo on 
October 26th and defeated them; but a few days 
later, at Mentana, the French came to the aid 
of the Papalists and compelled the Garibaldini 
to retreat beyond the boundary. Thus failed the 
Garibaldian expedition of 1867. 

As though to accentuate the opposition which, 
by reason of these events, was showing itself 
between Italy and France, Rouher, the President 



364 Cavour 

of the French Ministry, plainly declared in the 
name of the French government that "Italy shall 
not take possession of Rome; never, never will 
France tolerate such violence to her honour and 
to Catholicism. If Italy marches against Rome, 
she will once more find France in her path." 
His aim was to satisfy the Clerical majority of the 
Chamber. 

But all Italy was bent on Rome. Even in 
December of that same year 1867, Giovanni 
Lanza, in assuming the Presidency of the Chamber, 
openly asserted, as if in reply to Rouher's words: 
"We are unanimous in desiring the completion of 
national unity, and sooner or later Rome, by the 
necessity of things and by the judgment of the 
times, must be the capital of Italy." 

Since Cavour' s death Giovanni Lanza had been 
one of the most prominent of politicians. He 
had no great natural ability, but by diligent and 
careful study of public questions he attained a 
degree of efficiency such as few possessed, and 
formed convictions from which it was impossible 
afterwards to move him. He was animated by 
disinterested zeal for the public welfare; he came 
to be called Cato, and certainly no one excelled 
him in integrity and conscientiousness. In 1869 
accusations of corruption were made against 
certain politicians with regard to the concession 
to the Credito Mohiliare of monopoly rights in 
the preparation and sale of tobacco. The report 



The Completion of National Unity 365 

of the commission of inquiry failed to give com- 
plete satisfaction to public opinion, and the neces- 
sity of lifting political life into a purer atmosphere 
was generally felt. As soon as a ministerial 
crisis arose, Lanza seemed the man most clearly 
marked out to undertake the formation of the 
new ministry; and thus in December, 1869, 
he assumed the Presidency of the Cotmcil of 
Ministers. 

In the meantime the relations between France 
and Prussia had become seriously strained. For 
this reason Napoleon III. sought a more cordial 
understanding with Austria and Italy. The 
Italian government imposed the condition that 
France should withdraw from Rome the troops 
which she sent there in 1867. Napoleon III., 
faithful to the Clerical party, refused, and so the 
Franco-Italo-Austrian alliance fell through. 

The Roman Curia, as though to give proof of 
its power, had assembled an Ecumenical Council 
in Rome — ^the twentieth in the history of Catholic- 
ism. It was opened in December, 1869, in the 
presence of eight himdred ecclesiastics. The 
Council was dominated by ideas irreconcilable 
with the Liberal principles which were then tri- 
umphant in the world; and as if in defiance of 
these principles the dogma of the infallibility of 
the Pope was decreed. After this decision of Jtily, 
1870, the Council was prorogued, and events pre- 
vented it from ever reassembling. 

The war between France and Prussia was 



366 Cavour 

declared just at that time. There where fresh di- 
plomatic negotiations for a Franco-Italo-Austrian 
alliance, but they were rendered vain by the 
obstinacy of France in refusing to allow the 
Italians to occupy Rome. After the first defeats 
of the French arms, Napoleon III. withdrew his 
troops from Rome, and sent Prince Jerome Napo- 
leon to Florence, to make a formal request for 
Italian aid, with the promise of a free hand in the 
Papal States. The chivalrous Victor Emmanuel 
wished to hurry to the help of his ally of 1859. 
But public opinion in Italy was hostile to Napoleon 
III. Moreover, though the French had fought 
side by side with the Italians in 1859, the Italians 
had been allies of Prussia in 1866. So the Council 
of Ministers declared itself for neutrality. When 
the disaster of Sedan had brought the French 
Empire to its fall, the Italian government felt 
itself absolved from the pledge given to Napoleon 
III. in 1864; it hastened, therefore, to complete 
the nationalist programme. King Victor Em- 
manuel wrote a letter to Pius IX. in which, with 
the "affection of a son," he prayed him to con- 
sider the conditions of Italy and to renounce the 
temporal power; but Pius IX. replied that he 
would yield to nothing but violence. 

On the night of September nth the Italian 
troops, commanded by General Raphael Cadoma, 
passed the papal frontier and without meet- 
ing serious resistance marched on Rome. They 
reached the gates of the Eternal City on the i8th. 




NAPOLEON III 
From a contemporary print, i8sq 



The Completion of National Unity 367 

Two days later, after fruitless negotiations by 
Cadoma, opened in the hope of avoiding a recourse 
to force, the attack was delivered at the Porta 
Pia. A breach was soon made in the walls, and 
the Italian troops entered the city in triumph. 
Thereupon Pius IX., who had merely wished to 
show that he yielded to force majeure, ordered 
his men to desist from hostilities, and shut 
himself up in the Vatican Palace, where he 
remained in the attitude of a prisoner. A 
plebiscite was taken in the Papal States on 
October 2d, with the result that 133,681 voted 
for annexation to the Kingdom of Italy, and 
i>507 against it. 

Political elections were held throughout the 
Kingdom in November. The nimiber of Deputies, 
raised to 493 in 1866 after the union of Venice, 
was now increased to 508, and at that figure it 
has ever since been maintained. This first legisla- 
ture of the whole united Italy (the eleventh from 
the proclamation of the Statute) was opened at 
Florence on December 5th by Victor Emmanuel. 
In the address which he delivered on that occasion 
he was able with just pride to say • 

With Rome as the capital of Italy, I have fulfilled 
my promise and crowned the undertaking which 
twenty-three years ago was begun by my magnani- 
mous father. As a king and as a son, I feel in my heart 
a solemn joy when I greet the representatives of our 
beloved country assembled here for the first time, and 



368 Cavour 

when I pronounce these words: "Italy is free and 
one; it only remains for us now to make her great 
and happy." 

Before the new government was installed at 
Rome, there was a discussion in Parliament as 
to the attitude to be adopted towards the Pope. 
The great anxiety of many people on this point 
is easily understood. It was necessary to re- 
assure the Catholic conscience as to the conse- 
quences which the abolition of the temporal 
power would have upon the independence of the 
Pontiff in his religious mission. Ten years before, 
Camillo Cavour had formulated the great princi- 
ple A Free Church in a Free State. He had shown 
that the separation of Church and State was 
necessary to the complete harmony of the edifice 
of liberty which it was desired to raise in Italy; 
hence the Church ought to renounce every civil 
privilege and office, and the State all those cau- 
tionary and defensive provisions which it had 
hitherto devised against the ecclesiastical authority. 
He declared his readiness to apply these principles ; 
but from his speeches, and from the many pub- 
lished documents relating to his negotiations with 
the Roman Curia, it seems clear that the con- 
cessions were in his mind intended as compensa- 
tions for the spontaneous abandonment of the 
temporal power by the Pope. That renunciation 
was not made; the Pope constantly refused to 
come to terms, and, inflicting upon himself a 



The Completion of National Unity 369 

voluntary imprisonment in the Vatican, clearly 
annoimced that he was an enemy of the new 
Kingdom. Yet many of those who boasted that 
they were heirs of the Cavour traditions (and 
among them Giovanni Lanza) maintained that 
the principle of full liberty ought none the less 
to be applied to the Church. Others, on the con- 
trary, putting theories aside, said that what was 
needed was a practical policy based on the experi- 
ence of life; they iirged that, while leaving some 
degree of liberty to the Church, the State should 
preserve the right of superintending her to a 
certain extent, by way of self-defence against the 
abuses of a priesthood who remained hostile to 
the State. Among the supporters of this opinion, 
one of the most influential was Quintino Sella, at 
that time Minister of Finance; but in face of 
Lanza's obstinacy he refrained from insisting upon 
his own view and contented himself with the 
introduction of certain mild restrictions into the 
project. 

The result was what is known as the Law of 
Guarantees ; which, after approval by the Chamber, 
received the King's sanction on May 13, 1871. 
It accorded to the Pope all the prerogatives and 
honours of a sovereign, allowed him the Vatican 
and Lateran Palaces and the villa of Castel 
Gandolf o, free of every tax or charge, and assigned 
to him an annual allowance of three million two 
hundred and twenty-five thousand Italian lire, 
which was the sum put down in the accounts of 
34 



37^ Cavour 

the Roman State as a provision for the Pope and 
for the various ecclesiastical expenses of the Holy- 
See. Beyond this, the new Kingdom of Italy, 
in order to secure the most complete liberty to 
the Church, renounced many of the rights 
exercised by previous governments with respect 
to ecclesiastical order. By this ordinance, as 
Bonghi very truly said, the State imposed limits 
on the operation and competence of its laws and 
on its powers in relation to the Church. On his 
part, however, the Pope never consented to 
recognize the Law of Guarantees; he refused the 
allowance and he continually protested against 
the Italian government, which he regarded as a 
usurper. 

There was the danger that it might be desired 
to give an international character to the Law of 
Guarantees by placing the observance of it under 
the protection of the Catholic Powers. Fortu- 
nately it was found possible to avoid so grave a 
peril, since France, the one Power which at that 
time would have shown any inclination to embar- 
rass the new Kingdom, no longer held a position 
of influence. 

The removal of the capital was carried out 
early in July, 1871. King Victor Emmanuel II. 
left the Pitti Palace, at Florence, for the papal 
palace of the Quirinal. Many monasteries were 
whitewashed, decorated, and turned into official 
residences and government offices. The Chamber 
of Deputies had for its seat the Montecitorio 



The Completion of National Unity 371 

Palace, that fine building begun by Bernini in 
1650 for the Ludovisi family and completed under 
Innocent XII. as a palace of justice. The palace 
named Madama after Margaret of Austria, 
daughter of Charles V., who had resided in it, 
was assigned to the Senate. 

Thus the grand idea of Italian unity, so long 
cherished as a dream by the greatest thinkers, so 
long hymned as a sacred ideal by the most dis- 
tinguished poets, might be considered an accom- 
plished fact. Nearly all the territory that was 
Italian in a geographical sense had now been 
gathered into a single State, the population of 
which, according to the census made on Decem- 
ber 31, 1 87 1, totalled twenty- six million eight 
hundred thousand.^ 

In reviewing the vicissitudes of the Italian 
Risorgimento, it is usual to say that Italy has been 
fortunate — ^it is usual to speak of her lucky star. 
But if one reflects upon the great sorrows that 
had to be endured in the making of Italy, the 
forces of intellect, the heroic deeds that were 
displayed, it will easily be recognized that Italy 
owes her good fortune to herself, to her thinkers 
and poets, to the long roll of her martyrs, to her 
eminent statesmen, to her valiant soldiers. The 
fortime of Italy consists in the fact that she pro- 
duced, during those years, a splendid company 

^ In the census of June lo, 191 1 , the population of the Kingdom 
reached a total of 34,680,000 souls. 



372 Cavour 

of elect minds and noble souls, and especially the 
four personalities who furnished the most valuable 
elements in her redemption : the apostle who gave 
the faith, the hero who moved the spirit of the 
people, the sovereign who put the monarchy at the 
service of the revolution, and the statesman who 
co-ordinated and disciplined all forces in order 
to attain the great end in view. 

Time has weakened the remembrance of the 
petty human passions which now and then created 
strife between the great personages of this epic, 
and to-day the Italian people is able to gather 
up into one affectionate and grateful thought 
King Victor and Mazzini, Garibaldi and Cavour; 
and to do so is the easier because in their difficult 
task the monarch was often obliged to appear 
revolutionary, and the red-hot republican be- 
lieved it compatible with his mission that he 
should invite the King to set the country free; 
because the great minister of the monarchy ex- 
perienced violent outbursts of rebelliousness, and 
the captain of the people showed his splendid 
heroism in the phrase "I obey" pronounced on 
the confines of the Trentino. 

They are the great guardian spirits of Italy! 




^l-'-l- 



INDEX 



Aberdeen, Lord, 176 
Abruzzi, the, 320 
Acquapendente, attack near, 

314 
Adda, the, 6 
Adige, the, 107, 118, 360 
Agricultural Congress, the, 93 
Ajaccio, Murat at, 19 
Albert Amedeo I., no 
Alboin, King, 3 
Alessandria, garrison at, 34; 

conspirators at, 66; railway 

at, 76; demands constitution, 

103; troops at, 202; fortress 

strengthened, 227 ; Piedmont 

army at, 274 
Alfieri, Vittorio, 8, 52, 194, 

230 
Alfonso, Count di Caserti, 322 
Alps, Julian, 3; Tridentine, 

276 
Altieri, Cardinal, 113 
Amadeus II., King, 329 
Amadeus VIII., King, 329 
Ancona, the rebels at, 49; fall 

of, 138; Austrians at, 218; 

siege of, 320 
Angela Mai, poem to, 30 
Antonelli, Cardinal, 135, 178 
Aosta, valley of, 68 
Aporti, Ferrante, 77 
Arabs, the, 352 
Arese, Count Francesco, 216 
Argentine Republic, 119 
Argus, warship, 315 
Armellini, 135 
Arnaldo da Brescia, 83 
Artom, secretary to Cavour, 

277 



Aspromonte, heights of, 356 
Austria, Lombardy subject to, 
5; war with France, 10; 
agreement with Murat, 17; 
controls Parma, 25; the 
Holy Alliance, 28; punish- 
ments by, 39; restores mon- 
archies, 49; Charles Albert's 
hatred for, 85 ; conspiracy of, 
90; hatred of, 96; censorship 
in, 97; treaty with Modena, 
97; revolt against, 107; suc- 
cesses of, 115; hostilities 
with, 131; victory of, 132; 
captures Bologna, 138; cap- 
tures Venice, 143; retali- 
ations with, 151; hatred 
for 184, 198; violence of, 
189; proposes to mediate, 
215; Ferdinand supports, 
223 ; change in Italian policy, 
225; occupies Romagna, 
241; declares war, 246; 
agrees not to attack Pied- 
mont, 255; issues manifesto, 
259; sends envoy to Pied- 
mont, 262; advances on 
Turin, 275; retreat at Sol- 
ferino, 276; retreat to Ve- 
rona, 290; aggression of, 322; 
indignation of, 330; plans 
to wrest Venetia from, 351; 
Prussian hostility toward, 
359; victory at Lissa, 361 
Avellino, 31 



B 



Baden, Cavour at, 244 
Balbo, Cesare, 81, 153 



373 



374 



Index 



Baldasseroni, Giovanni, i8i 

Balkan Peninsula, the, 82 

Bandiera, Admiral, 49; sons of, 
79 

Bard, fort at, 68 

Barletta, challenge at, 151 

Bartolommei, Marquis, 280 

Basilicata, revolution in, 318 

Beauharnais, Eugene, 12 

Beggar King, the, 98 

Belfiore, fortress of, 186 

Belli, Giuseppe, 82 

Bellona, Frigate, 80 

Benevento, Principality of, 320 

Bentivegna, Baron Francesco, 
224 

Bergamo, delegate of, 96; 
volunteers at, 120; revolt at, 
132; Austrian defeat at, 276 

Berti, Domenico, 56 

Biella, town of, 354 

Bismarck, Prince von, 219, 
268, 346, 359 

Bixio, Nino, 310, 316 

Boggiano, Lorenzo, 66 

Bologna, France takes, 10; re- 
volution in, 47; the press at, 
90; surrender of, 138; rising 
at, 288; Cavour at, 312 

Bonaparte, Joseph, 12 

Boncompagni, Carlo, 280 

Borghese, Prince Camillo, 53 

Borsieri, death of, 39 

Botta, 194 

Bourbon dynasty, Naples 
under the, 5; driven from 
France, 55; forfeited throne, 
no 

Brescia, revolt at, 132, 188 

Brigandage in Italy, 180, 353 

British Museum, 40 

Brofferio, Angelo, 200 

Browning, Mrs. E. B., quoted, 
233, 247, 293 

Brussels, 78 

Buflfalora, commissioner at, 69; 
bridge at, 275 

Bunsen, Baron, 82 

Buol, Count von, 217, 257 

Byron, Lord, 52 

Byzantines, the, 352 



Cacciatori delle Alpi, 253 
Cadore district, 189 
Cadorna, Gen. Raphael, 366 
Cagliari, Archbishop of, 156 
Cagliari, steamship, 228 
Cairoli, Enrico, 363; Giovanni, 

363 
Calabria, 19; insurrection at, 
80; revolt at, 100; Garibaldi 
at, 318, 356 
Calatafimi, attack at, 316 
Calvi, Col. Fortunato, 189 
Canal, Bernardo di, 187 
Cancelleria, Palazzo della, 123 
Capolago's Venetian press, 185 
Cappellari, Fra Mauro, 47 
Caprera, island of, 209; Gari- 
baldi at, 356, 363 
Carbonari, the, 31, 34, 52, 148 
Carducci, G., quoted, 325, 335 
Carignano, 23, 116, 147 
Carniola, 32 
Carrara, cause for war in, 240; 

rising at, 288 
Casale-Monferrato, Agricul- 
tural Congress at, 93 
Caserta, Ferdinand II. dies at, 

278; province of, 322 
Cassio, Severino, 54 
Castel Gandolfo, villa of, 369 
Castelli, Michelangelo, 261 
Catania, burning of, 133; re- 
volt at, 309 
Catholic Democratic move- 
ment, 79 
Cavaletto, Alberto, 189 
Cavour, Camillo Benso di, 14; 
under surveillance, 53; letter 
to brother, 54; at Genoa, 55; 
love for Marchesa Anna, 56; 
letter to uncle, 56; against 
conspiracy, 58; sent to Bard, 
68; resigns his commission, 
68; travels abroad, 69; at 
Villach, 70; in Paris, 71; ad- 
mires English liberty, 72; 
manages father's estate, 72; 
on Railways, 76; founds II 
Riser gimento, 94 ; advises war, 



Index 



375 



Cavour — Continued 

io8; elected to Parliament, 
117; fights Radicals, 125; 
enters Parliament, 152; in 
debate, 154; advocates re- 
forms, 157; made Minister of 
Agriculture, 158; supports 
Free Trade, 159; made Min- 
ister of Finance, 161; be- 
comes Premier, 168; handles 
finance, 197; signs treaty 
with the Western nations, 
200; resigns from ministry, 
203; recalled by the King, 
204; visits Paris and London, 
205; at Congress of Paris, 
216; secures French alliance, 
219; testimonials to, 222; 
happy disposition, 229; in- 
spires confidence of Napo- 
leon III., 237; letters from 
Baden, 244; organizes army, 
253; invited to Paris, 255; 
returns to Turin, 257; a 
tragic moment for, 261; de- 
livers Austrian letters, 275; 
many offices held by, 277; 
grief of, 290; resigns minis- 
try, 291; relies on England, 
299; reinstated, 301; vic- 
tory for, 304; belief in Ital- 
ian unity, 307; doubts and 
fears, 310; at Modena, 313; 
refuses dictatorship, 322 ; 
reconstructs ministry, 332; 
friendship with Garibaldi, 
343 ; stricken with fever, 344 ; 
death of, 345; burial in the 
Superga, 345; succeeded by 
Ricasoli, 355 

Cavour, Giuseppina, 159, 230 

Cavour, Gustavo, 159, 230 

Cavour, Marquis Michael 
Benso di, 53 

Centres, the two, 166 

Cesenatico, 141 

Chamb^ry, 66 

Charles Albert, birth of, 23; 
weak character of, 34; devo- 
tion to Holy Alliance, 40; 
becomes king, 62; dislikes 



Cavour, 71; confessions of, 
84; urged to grant reforms, 
94; grants constitution, 103; 
serves in war, 109; flees to 
Portugal, 132 ; dreams of, 330 

Charles Emmanuel, 194 

Charles Felix, brother of Vic- 
tor Emmanuel I., 22; recon- 
ciliation with Charles Albert, 
40; disliked by Cavour, 55; 
death of, 62 

Charles Louis of Bourbon, 98, 
243 

Charles III. of Parma, 182 

Charles X., 204 

Chivasso, Austrians at, 275 

Cholera, epidemic of, 205 

Christina, Princess, 243 

Cialdini, Gen., 319, 359 

Cipriani, Leonetto, 296 

Cisalpine Republic, 35 

Cispadane Republic, 10 

Civil Code, the, 13 

Civil Regeneration of Italy, the, 
163 

Civiltd CattoUca, the, 331 

Civita Vecchia, 136, 363 

Clarendon, Lord, 217 

Clerical party, the, 154; vic- 
tory over the, 157; pressure 
from the, 203; Gustavo Ca- 
vour favours, 230; intrigues 
of, 252; prayers for Austria, 
269; discontent of, 289; Na- 
poleon III. and, 351; pro- 
tests of the, 362 

Clotilde, Princess, 242; mar- 
riage of, 251; death of, 252 

College de France, 122 

Collegno, Count di, 34 

Comacchio, 141 

Como, revolt at, 132; Francis 
Joseph at, 185; Garibaldi at, 
276 

Conciliis, Col. de, 31 

Concordat, the, 202 

Confalonieri, Count Freder- 
ick, 39; death of, 96 

Confiteor, 84 

Congress at Paris, the, 215, 
219, 223, 226 



376 



Index 



Conneau, Dr., 239 
Connubio, the, 166 
Consalvi, Cardinal, 26 
Constituent Assembly, the, 

134 
Constitution, Ferdinand grants 

the, 32 
Corfu, 80 
Corsica, 5, 19 
Corsini, villa, 138; Prince of, 

282 
Cosenz, reinforcements by, 317 
Council of State, the, 90 
Cowley, Lord, 254 
Credito Mobiliare, 364 
Crimea, war in the, 198, 202, 

223 
Crispi, Francesco, 308, 310 
Custoza, heights of, 118, 264, 

360 
Cyprus, King of, 331 
Czar of Russia, the, 199 
Czarnowsky, Gen., 131 



Dabormida, Minister, 199 
D'Azeglio, Massimo, 84, 150, 

161, 167, 203, 206, 289, 311; 

Roberto, 102 
D'Allaman, Adelaide Sellon, 54 
Dalmatia, 6 
Dante, brotherhood of, 8; 

Cavour familiar with, 52; 

quotation from, 222 
Danzini, Alexander, 285 
Diario inedito, 56 
Dolfi, Joseph, 281 
Dottesio, Luigi, 185 
Dubufe, painting by, 219 
Durando, Gen. Giovanni, 202 



Ecchio, Sebastiano, 127 

Elba, island of, 17 

Emilia, Liberals of, 46; Victor 

Emmanuel at, 312 
England, in the Holy Alliance, 

28; asylum for fugitives, 39; 

intervenes at Messina, 122; 

neutrality of, 241; tries to 



prevent war, 254; sympathy 
for Italy, 299; applauds 
Italy, 321 

English Corn Laws, the, 72 

Estensi, 25 

Eugenie, Empress, 252, 289 

Exilles, fort at, 54 



Fantasio, novel by, 51 

Fanti, Gen. Manfredo, 297, 
319 

Farina, Joseph La, 222, 280, 
296,308, 3H 

Farini, Luigi Carlo, 83, 288 

Fauch6, agent, 313 

Ferdinand II. of Naples, 98; 
grants constitution, loi; 
negotiations with, no; dis- 
solves Parliament, in; at- 
tempts conquest of Sicily, 
121; in Sicily, 133; against 
Parliament, 173; Pius IX. 
supports, 178; sympathy for 
Russia, 223; Napoleon III. 
friendly with, 240; death of, 
278 

Ferdinand III. and I., 25, 32, 

39, 95. 243 

Ferdinand, Duke of Genoa, no 

Ferrara, 10, 92 

Filangieri, General, 178 

Finzi, Giuseppe, 189 

Five Days, the, 188 

Florence, 83; Parliament at, 
114; insurrection at, 134; re- 
sistance of, 151; revolution 
in, 279; City Council of, 284; 
Italian capital at, 358; Par- 
liament at, 367 

FoUonica, Gulf of, 141 

Forlimpopoli, theatre at, 180 

France, as monarchy, 4; revo- 
lution in, 10; in Holy Alli- 
ance, 28; non-intervention, 
49; at Messina, 122; invades 
Italy, 136; captures Rome, 
138,179; alliance with Italy, 
238; opposition to war in, 
253; war with Prussia, 365 



Index 



377 



Francis I., Emperor, 24, 32, 95 

Francis II., Prince, ascends 

throne, 278; flees to Papal 

States, 322 ; hopes to recover 



throne, 353 
Francis IV., 25, 40, 47, 



49, 97. 



243. 



Francis V., 97, 182, 288, 296 

Francis, Archduke, 25 

Francis Joseph, Emperor, visits 
Italy, 185; visits Venice and 
Milan, 225; exasperated with 
Italy, 258 ; proclamation by, 
265; commands army, 276; 
at Villafranca, 290 

Frappoli, Col., 312 

Frattini, Pietro, 189 

Free Church in a Free State, 
^,340,368 

Free Trade, Cavour favours, 

Freemasons, the, 31 



Gaeta, castle of, 124, 134; 

surrender of, 322 
Garibaldi, Joseph, 14; in con- 
spiracy, 67; exploits of, 119; 
victory of, 136; French de- 
feat of, 139; Anita, wife of, 
140; escapes to Liguria, 141; 
victory of, 179; returns to 
Nice, 209; meets Cavour, 
222; organizes army, 245; 
enters Como, 276; anger at 
Cavour, 302; leads insur- 
gents, 309; dictator of Sicily, 
316; enters Naples, 318; re- 
sentment with Cavour, 343; 
plans attack on Rome, 356; 
wounded, 356; in London, 
357 ; sent to Caprera, 363 
Garibaldi and The Thousand, 

312 
Gazzetta del Popolo, La, 227 
Gazzetta di Venezia, 330 
Genoa, Republic of, 5, 6, 21, 
27, 66; railway at, 76, 197; 
Congress of Scientists at, 91 ; 
demands constitution, 103; 



the Duke of, no; insurrec- 
tion at, 150; expedition from, 
228; Napoleon III. at, 275 
Germany, Austria expects aid 

from, 262, 268 
Ghiringhello, abb^, 156 
Gioberti, Vincenzo, arrest of, 
66; in Brussels, 78; public 
opinion with, 83; favours 
Pope Pius IX., 89; made 
president, 117; influence of, 
125; publishes Civil Regenera- 
tion of Italy, 163 
Giovi tunnel, 197 
Giulay, General Francesco, 

259, 274 
Gladstone, William E., 175, 

318 
Gli Ultimi Cast di Romagna, 84 
Glori, villa, 363 
Goethe, 52 

Goito, victory of, 109, 159, 264 
Graham, Sir James, 177 
Grandis, engineer, 228 
Grattoni, engineer, 228 
Grazioli, Bartolomeo, 188 
Greek independence, 45 
Gregory XVI., Pope, 47, 49, 83 
Grey, Lord, 155 
Grioli, Giuseppe, 186 
Guerrazzi, 124, 134, 181 
Guicciardini's work, 194 

H 

Hall of the Great Council, 142 
Ham, prison of, 235 
Hapsburg-Lorraine dynasty, 

6,27 
Haynau, General, 133 
Hess, Marshal, 276 
Holy Alliance, the, 28, 32, 37 
Hubner, Baron, 258 
Hudson, Sir James, 299, 321 
Hungary, insurgents of, 143, 

199, 257, 333 



II dottor Antonio, 66 
// Fischietto, 225 



378 



Index 



II Giorno, by Parini, 9 

II Passatore, 180 

II Primato morale e civile degli 
Italiani, 78, 163 

II Risorgimento, newspaper, 
94; Cavour retires from, 
158; Ricasoli in, 285; early- 
numbers of, 340 

II Vascello, 139 

Innocent XII., Pope, 371 

Inno di Garibaldi, 273 

Intrepid, warship, 315 

Ionian Islands, 6 

Iron crown of Italy, the, 330, 
362 

Ischia, gaol at, 178 

Istria, Venice holds, 6 

Italian National Loan, 185 

ItaHan Revival, the, 13, 30, 58, 
148 

Italian Risorgimento, the, 57, 
371 

Italian tricolour, the, 11, 49, 
144, 209, 284 

Italian Unity, society of, 174 

Italy, unity of, 3 ; under Spain, 
4; secular divisions in, 4; 
lack of union, 5 ; jealousies of 
States, 7; middle classes in, 
8; French invasion of, 10; 
new life in, 13; war of inde- 
pendence, 18; King Joachim, 
19; Sardinia and Austria, 27; 
the Papal States, 26, 82; al- 
liance of Throne and Altar, 
28; Napoleon's prediction, 
28; revolution in Naples, 31; 
intervention, 32; Piedmont 
revolution, 34; reaction, 38; 
martyrs, 39 ; passing of revo- 
lutionary period, 45; the 
French Revolution, 46; 
youth of Mazzini, 52; Lib- 
eral ideas of Cavour, 54; 
Young Italy, 63; machinery 
in industry, 75; first rail- 
ways, 76; literature, 77; New 
Guelf party, 81 ; Pius IX., 89; 
Ferdinand II., 98; SiciHan 
revolution, 100; Venice and 
Milan, 107; war of inde- 



pendence, 109; Austrian vic- 
tories, 118; Garibaldi, 118; 
defeat of Novara, 132 ; Bres- 
cia, 133; Sicily and Naples, 
133; the Roman Republic, 
134; Manin, 142; Victor 
Emmanuel II., 148; D'Aze- 
glio, 150; the Papacy, 178; 
brigandage, 180; Mantuan 
trials, 185; mission of Pied- 
mont, 195; the Western 
Powers, 199; Congress of 
Paris, 215; the National So- 
ciety, 222; Expedition to 
Sapri, 228; Napoleon III., 
235; the Orsini plot, 237; 
Plombieres, 239; prepares for 
war, 245; Princess Clotilde, 
251; Austria's ultimatum, 
262; war of 1859, 273; Villa- 
franca, 290; peace of Zurich, 
298; opening of Parliament, 
304; unity of Italy, 307; the 
Thousand, 308; the King- 
dom of Italy, 328; the Ro- 
man question, 337; death of 
Cavour, 342; capital at 
Florence, 358; the capital at 
Rome, 370 



James Stuart, 204 
Jerusalem, King of, 331 

K 

Kellersberg, Baron, 262 
Kossuth, Louis, 257, 295, 333 



La Concordia, 116 
Laetitia, Princess, 252 
Lake Maggiore, 76, 120 
La Marmora, Gen. Alfonso, 
158, 197, 205, 245, 277, 333, 

359 

La Masa, 311 
Lamoricifere, General, 3 19 
Lansdowne, Lord, 177 



Index 



379 



Lanza, President, 364, 369 
Lateran Palace, the, 369 
Latium, 141 

Law of Guarantees, the, 369 
Laybach, Congress of, 32, 37 
Left, members of the, 165, 355 
Leghorn, railway at, 76; re- 
sistance at, 134; Austrian 
troops at, 181 ; volunteers at, 
281; French at, 286 
Legnano, fortress of, 108 
Le mie Prigioni, 39 
Leopardi, 30 

Leopold II., Grand Duke, 91; 
grants constitution, 103; re- 
turns to Tuscany, 134; re- 
fuses to call Assembly, 181; 
departure from Tuscany of, 
284 
Leri, Cavour at, 205 
Lesseillon, fort at, 54 
Lesseps, Ferdinand de, 137 
Liberals, the, 31; enthusiasm 
of, 79; demands of, 83; frus- 
trate plot, 92 ; success of, 1 01 ; 
favour war, 128; thrown in 
prison, 134; protests by the, 
137; institutions of, 165; 
persecution of the, 179; as- 
pirations of the, 194; criti- 
cize Cavour, the, 200; growth 
of, 202; accept Cavour's 
policy, 229 ; Sardinia repre- 
sents the, 269; excitement of 
the, 278; outbreak of the, 
309; gains by the, 358 
Liguria, 6, 12, 65 
Lissa, Austrian victory at, 361 
Literature in Italy, 7 
Lombardo, steamer, 313 
Lombardy, under Austria, 5; 
annexed to Italy, 12; 
changes name, 24; reaction 
in, 38 ; Agricultural Congress, 
93; revolt in, 107; joins Sar- 
dinia, 115; represented in 
the rninistry, 127; insurrec- 
tion in, 132; amnesty at, 
152; under Radetzky, 183; 
confusion in, 188; Austria 
caresses, 226; attack on, 266; 



Napoleon III. at, 278; Aus- 
tria cedes, 291 
London, Victor Emmanuel in, 

206 
Lorenzo Benoni, 51, 66 
Lorraine, House of, 280 
Louis XV., 5 
Louis Napoleon, 136 
Louis PhiHppe, 49, 123, 235 
Louis, Prince, 252 
Lucca, Duke of, 6, 98, 243 
Ludovisi family, the, 371 
Luis of Portugal, King, 356 
Luzzatti, Luigi, 346 

M 

Macaulay, Thomas B., 82 
Macchiavelli, Niccolo, 4 
Macerata, 18 

Madama Palace, 250, 346, 371 
Magenta, French victory at, 

275, 288 
Malenchini, Vincenzo, 281, 284 
Malghera Fort, 142 
Maltese Islands, 7 
Mamiani, Terence, 50, 113, 341 
Manara, Luciano, 139 
Mancini, protest by, 1 1 1 
Manin, Daniel, 96, 107, 115, 

121, 142, 208, 224, 334 
Maniscalco, Sal va tore, 178, 

308 
Mantua, fortress of, 48, 108; 

arrests at, 186, 189; Duchess 

of Parma at, 287 
Manzoni, Alexander, 18, 38, 

105 
Marches, the, 12, 48, 141, 288, 

319 
Marengo, battle of_, 12 
Margaret of Austria, 371 
Margherita,'Count Solaro della, 

94; opponent of Cavour, 210; 

criticizes Cavour's policy, 

227 
Maria Adelaide, 148 
Maria Cristina of Savoy, 99, 

278 
Maria Pia, Princess, 356 
Maria Theresa, Empress, 25 



380 



Index 



Marie Louise, 25, 48, 49, 98 

Maroncelli, 39 

Marsala, harbour of, 315 

Marseilles, Mazzini at, 61; 
Garibaldi at, 67 

Masina and his lancers, 139 

Massa, attack on, 240; the 
rising at, 288 

Massari, Joseph, 250, 323 

Maximilian, Archduke, 226 

Mazzini, Joseph, 14; birth of, 
50; described by Ruffini, 51; 
in Carbonari, 52; organizes 
Young Italy, 53; set at lib- 
erty, 61; in exile, 61; letter 
to Charles Albert, 62; flees 
to England, 67; on the 
Bandieri brothers, 80; on 
the Italian Republic, 81; 
urges liberty, 92; made dic- 
tator, 135; republican ideas 
of, 184; in rising at Milan, 
188; disapproves of Cavour, 
228; promotes insurrection, 
356 

Medici, Giacomo, 139, 317 

Menabrea, Count, 165 

Menotti, Cyrus, 46, 49 

Mentana, French victory at, 
363 

Mercantini, Luigi, 271 

Messina, Straits of, 20; revolt 
at, 100; bombardment of, 
122; tumult at, 309 

Mestre, railway to, 76; Aus- 
trians at, 142 

Metternich, Prince von, 27, 92, 
95, 246 

Meucci, friend of Garibaldi, 
209 

Milan, capital of Lombardy, 5; 
unrest in, 9; railway to, 76; 
massacre at, 97; rising at, 
107; fall of, 118; treaty of, 
152; Mazzini in, 188; the 
entry into, 276; rifles at, 31 1 

Milano, Agesilao, 224 

Milazzo, Bourbons at, 317 

Mincio, the, 108, 118, 276, 359 

Minghetti, minister, 352 

Minto, Lord, 94 



Misley, 46 

Modena, Duchy of, 6; in Cis- 
padane Republic, 10; under 
Austria, 25; despotism in, 
40; rising at, 47, 109; treaty 
with Austria, 97; annexation 
with Sardinia, 114; restora- 
tion of, 120; hatred of Lib- 
erals, 182; oppression, 240; 
ally of Austria, 269; agita- 
tion in, 287; the King at, 
313; aspirations to throne, 

Monaco, principality of, 6 
Moncalieri, proclamation of, 

153; Castle of, 252 
Montanari, Count Carlo, 188 
Mont Cenis, tunnel of, 227 
Montecitorio Palace, 371 
Monteleone, Murat at, 19 
Monterotondo, victory at, 363 
Monte Video, 119 
Monza, railway to, 76; iron 

crown at, 330 
Monzambano, Cavour at, 290 
Moravia, 39 
Morelli, Lieut., 31 
Moro, Domenico, 80 
Murat, Joachim, 12, 17, 19, 31, 

122 
Murat, Prince Lucien, 223, 279 



N 



Naples, Kingdom of, 5; com- 
merce of, 9 ; under Murat, 12 ; 
Ferdinand in, 18; Carbon- 
ari in, 31; reaction in, 38; 
demands constitution, loi; 
rising at, 109; Parliament 
dissolved, 133 ; against Rome, 
137; fall of, 320; aspiration 
to the throne, 351 

Napoleon, at Marengo, 12; 
King of Italy, 12; fall of, 17; 
foretells future of Italy, 29; 
death of, 38 

Napoleon III., confers with 
Cavour, 207; favours Victor 
Emmanuel, 216; recalls am- 
bassador, 223; life of, 235; 



Index 



381 



Napoleon — Continued 

at Plombieres, 240; writes to 

Queen Victoria, 249; orders 

troops to Piedmont, 263; 

desires to free Italy, 273; 

proposes armistice, 290; 

angered at the Pope, 300; 

negotiations with, 342; acts 

as mediator, 361 ; fall of, 366 
Napoleon, Prince Jerome, 242 ; 

252, 286, 366 
Napoleon, Louis, 164, 179 
National Society, the, 222, 227, 

253,280,307,312 
Nazari, delegate, 96 
Neapolitan Parliament, 32 
Neipperg, Marshal, 25 
New Ctielf party, the, 81, 89 
Ney, Colonel, 179 
Niccolini's Arnaldo da Brescia, 

83 

Nice, 5, 67, 241, 302, 311 

Nigra, minister, 161 

Nisco, Nicola, 174 

Nisida, gaol at, 178 

Nola, town of, 31 

Nouvelle Revue, 76 

Novara, troops at, 37; de- 
mands constitution, 103 ; the 
fall of, 132, 147, 197, 330 

O 

Odenino, Father Giacomo, 344 
Oporto, Charles Albert at, 132 
Orbetello, fortress of, 314 
Orsini, Felice, 237 
Ottoman Empire, 82 
Oudinot, Gen., 136, 138 



Padua, railway to, 76; massa- 
cre at, 97 ; occupation of , 1 1 5 
Palazzo delle Segretarie, 277 
Paleocapo, motion by, 115 
Palermo, proclamation at, 100; 
provisional government of, 
121 ; fall of, 133; Bentivegna 
shot at, 224; cathedral of, 
308; insurrection at, 309; the 
retreat to, 316 
Palestrina, battle of, 137 



Palestro, attack on, 275 
Pallavicino, George, death of, 

39; founds National Society, 

222, 280 
PaUieri, Count, 288 
Palmerston, Lord, 299 
Pamfili, villa, 138 
Panizzi, Anthony, 40 
Pantaleoni, Dr. Diomede, 338 
Papal States, the, 5, 9, 18, 21, 

26, 47, 49, 70, 79, 82, 92, 

109, 122, 163, 180, 217, 314, 

351. 363, 367 
Pareto, Lorenzo, 152, 328 
Parini, Joseph, 9 
Paris, entry into, 17; Congress 

of, 205; Cavour in, 207 
Parisian revolution of 1830, 46, 

^5?.. 55 , . 

Pansian revolution of 1848, 
103, 107 

Parliaments, calling of, 109; 
in Naples, 133 

Parma, the Duchy of, 6; the 
Duke of, 12; under Austria, 
25, 98; revolution in, 48; 
rising in, 108; annexed to 
Sardinia, 114; restoration of, 
120; Charles III. of, 182; 
unites with Piedmont, 287; 
votes for union, 303; aspira- 
tions to throne, 351 

Parma, Duchess of, 25; flight 
of, 48; death of, 98 

Pasini, Valentino, 353 

Passaglia, Dr., 338 

Pastro, Luigi, 189 

Pauperism and tlie Poor Law, 72 

Pavia, massacre at, 97 

Peel, Sir Robert, 155 

Pellico, 39 

Pelloni, Stefano, 180 

Pepe, Gen. Guglielmo, 31, 33, 
III 

Pepoli, Marquis, 298 

Persano, Admiral, 318, 360 

Perugia, subjection of, 288 

Peruzzi, Ubaldino, 181, 284 

Peschiera, fortress of, 108, 109, 
115 

Peter Leopold I., 6, 26 



382 



Index 



Petrarch, quotation from, 222 

Piacenza, annexed by France, 
12; Marie Louise at, 48; 
Austrians at, 218 

Piazza Barbano, 282 

Piazza Castello, 225 

Piedmont, France annexes, 12; 
constitution of, 37; revolu- 
tionists of, 51; persecutions 
at, 66; railways in, 76; mili- 
tary power of, 79_; the press at, 
94; Parliament in, 115, 150; 
unrest in, 125; hostilities re- 
newed, 131; fall of, 132; tri- 
colour in, 144; election at, 
152; Liberal monarchy of, 
184; joins alliance, 199; pres- 
tige of, 205; free institu- 
tions of, 222; Austria de- 
clares war on, 245; alliance 
with France, 252; French 
troops in, 263; becomes a 
kingdom, 327 

Piedmontese army, monument 
to the, 225 

Piemonte, steamer, 313 

Pietri, 295 

Pilo, Rosalino, 309, 316 

Piombino, principality of, 6; 
Gulf of, 141; Straits of, 314 

Pisa, Railway to, 76; Scientific 
Congress at, 78 

Pisacano, Carlo, 228 

Pitti Palace, the, 370 

Pius VII., Pope, 26 

Pius IX., Pope, election of, 89; 
withdraws from national 
movement, 112; flees from 
Rome, 123; established in 
Rome, 140; supports Ferdi- 
nand II., 178; returns to 
Rome, 180; Napoleon III.'s 
friendship for, 240; breaks 
with Napoleon, 300; rebel- 
lion against, 319; negotia- 
tions with, 342; pubhshes 
the Syllabus, 358 

Pizzo, Murat at, 19 

Plombi^res, Cavour at, 239, 
273; Napoleon III.'s agree- 
ment at, 245, 301 . 



Po, the, 18, 24, III, 133, 141, 

275 

Poerio, Alessandro, 175 

Poerio, Carlo, 174 

Polish insurrection, 66 

Poma, Carlo, 187 

Ponza, island of, 228 

Pope and the Congress, the, 300 

Popular party, the, 281 

Porta Pia, 367 

Portici, railway to, 75; Pope 
Pius IX, at, 179 

Portugal, 132 

Prague, treaty of, 361 

Prati, Giovanni, 104, 145, 171, 
191,213 

Prefecture, the, 277 

Press, censorship of the, 28; 
Hberty of the, 90, 181 

Priests, government by, 6 

Privileged citizens, 8 

Procida, gaol of, 178 

Protest of the People of the Two 
Sicilies, 100 

Prussia, in Holy Alliance, 28; 
representative of, 82; neu- 
trality of, 241 ; alarm in, 278; 
hostility of, 290; embassy to, 
333; Italian alliance with, 
359; war with France, 365 

Q 

Quadrilateral, the, 108, 115, 

276, 290, 351 
Quarterly Review, ike, quoted, 

245 
Quarto, Garibaldi at, 310 
Quirinal Palace, 89, 103, 370 



Radetzky, Marshal, 97, 114, 
118, 131, 142, 149, 183, 226, 

259 

Radicals, the, 124, 150 

Rainer, Archduke, 24, 148 

Ramorino, Colonel, 66 

Rattazzi - La Marmora minis- 
try, 296, 298 

Rattazzi, Urbano, 126, 165, 
338,355.362 



Index 



383 



Rayneval, Count de, 224 
Re Galantuomo, 162, 330 
Re Tentenna, Charles Alberta, 

Reggio, 10, 12, 100, 182 

Reichstadt, Duke of, 235 

Renaissance, age of the, 4 

Restoration, the, 29, 46 

Revel, Deputy Di, 166 

Revere, parishioners of, 188 

Ribotti, General, 311 

Ricasoli, Baron Bettino, 285, 
297, 322, 355 

Ricasoli, Vincenzo, 285 

Ridolfi, Cosimo, 114 

Rieti, battle of, 33 

Right, members of the, 154, 164 

Rimini, battle at, 49; insurrec- 
tion at, 83; Ribotti at, 311 

Rio Grande, Republic of, 119 

Robert of Parma, 182 

Romagna, 12, 18, 26, 48, 179, 
208, 235, 241, 288 

Roman Curia, the, 90, 338, 
345. 359, 365, 368 

Roman Empire, unity of, 3 

Rome, embellishment of, 6, 12; 
capital of Italy, 29; religious 
metropolis, 79; the press at, 
90; reforms in, 95; tumult at, 
113; proclaims republic, 134; 
captured by French, 140, 
179; denounced by Claren- 
don, 217; France and Aus- 
tria withdraw from, 218; 
Cavour plans capital at, 338 ; 
plans to capture, 351; 
French leave, 358, 366; 
Italians enter, 366 

Rosas, dictator, 119 

Roselli, Giuseppe, 138 

Rossetti, Gabriele, 39; com- 
poses hymn, loi 

Rossi, Pellegrino, 122 

Rothschild, Baron de, 256 

Rouher, President, 364 

Rubattino Company, the, 228, 
313. 

Ruffini, Giovanni, 51, 66 

Ruffini, Jacopo, 65, 80 

Russell, Lord John, 177,299,321 



Russell, Odo, 245, 249 

Russia, Austrian alliance with, 
II, 28; joins Austria, 143; 
war with France and Eng- 
land, 198; seeks to prevent 
war, 254 



Saffi, 135 

St. Helena, island of, 25, 38 

St. John, Knights of, 7 

St. Peter, Patrimony of, 300 

St. Petersburg, Bismarck at, 

268 
Sala dei Cinquecento, 114 
Salemi, march to, 315 
Salerno, province of, 228 
Salic Law, the, 22, 40 
Salto, fortress of, 119 
Salvagnoli, minister, 286 
San Antonio, plains of, 119 
San Marino, Republic of, 6, 

141 
San Martino, battle of, 276, 290 
San Marzano, Marquis di, 34 
San Pancrazio, Porta, 138 
Santa Croce Church, 211 
Santa Lucia, battle of, 264 
Santarosa, Count di, 34, 37, 45, 

54, 156, 344 
Sapri, landing at, 228, 309 
Sardinia, Kingdom of, 5; alli- 
ance with Austria, 10; re- 
storation of, 21; orations at, 
91; Parma and Modena an- 
nexed, 114; refugees at, 198; 
the army of, 205, 225; 
Victor Emmanuel, King of, 
328 
Savona, prison at, 58 
Savoy, dynasty of, 5; refuge 
in Sardinia, 12; Francis'IV., 
47; annexation of Genoa, 50; 
insurgents at, 66; cession to 
France, 241, 302; Victor 
Emmanuel receives the 
crown of, 330 
ScarselHni, Angelo, 186 
Schiaffino-Giustiniani, Mar- 
chesa Anna, 56 



384 



Index 



Schiller, 52 

Scientific Congresses, 78, 91, 96 

Sciesa, Antonio, 185 

Sedan, French defeat at, 366 

Sella, Quintino, 354, 369 

Sesia, the, 274 

Settembrini, Prof. Luigi, 100, 

174 
Settimo, Admiral, no 
Shakespeare, William, 52 
Siccardi, minister, 154 
Sicily, Kingdom of Naples and, 
5; constitution of, 20, 32; 
insurrection in, 99; new in- 
stitutions, no; opposition 
in, 178; government of, 217; 
despotism in, 224; Garibaldi, 
316 
Silvati, Lieutenant, 31 
Simpson, Commander, 205 
Solferino, battle of, 276, 290 
Sommeiller, engineer, 228 
Sostegno, Marquis de, 159 
Spain, triumph of, 4; revolu- 
tion of 1820, 31; constitu- 
tion of, 36; constitutionaHsts 
in, 45 ; sends aid to the Pope, 

137 

Speri, Tito, 188 

Spezia, naval port at, 227 

Spielberg, fortress of, 39, 96, 222 

Spinola, villa, 310 

Statue to Piedmontese army, 
222 

Subalpine Parliament, 198, 201, 
263, 304 

Suez Canal, the, 137 

Superga, church of, 345 

Switzerland, Mazzini in, 184; 
the . Kingdom of Italy ac- 
knowledged by, 332 

Syllabus, the, 358 



Talamona, Garibaldi at, 314 
Tanaro, French armyatthe,275 
Tazzoli, Enrico, 185 
Tchemaja, victory at, 205, 265 
Teano, Garibaldi near, 322 
Tegetthof, Admiral, 360 



Ten Days of 1849, the, 188 

Termini district, 224 

Terracina, Spanish at, 137 

Thoughts on the Condition of 
Ireland and its Future, 72 

Thousand, expedition of the, 
313, 337, 355 

Thouvenel, minister, 300 

Throne and Altar, alliance of, 
28 

Ticino, the, 37, 132, 274 

Tobacco, boycott of, 97 

Tolentino, 18 

Tommaseo, Nicol6, 97, 107 

Toulon, French fleet at, 363 

Tour, Gen. de la, 37 

Trentino, the, 189; entry into, 
361 

Trevelyan, Garibaldi, 312 

Treviglio, railway to, 76 

Treviso, 115 

Trieste, Cavour at, 70 

Triumvirate, the Roman, 135 

Tronto, the, 322 

Tuileries, court of, 252 

Turin, capital of Piedmont, 5, 
21; revolt at, 34; Charles 
Albert at, 36; Academy of, 
53; Cavour at, 55; railway 
to, 76, 197; demonstration 
at, 93; deputation to, loi; 
unrest at, 108; Victor Em- 
manuel born at, 147; Arch- 
bishop of, 156; monument 
at, 225; French mission to, 
239; treaty with France at, 
252, 302; Austrian letters 
sent to, 274; Manin monu- 
ment at, 334 

Tiirr, Colonel, 314 

Tuscany, Charles Albert in, 
148; Grand Duke restored 
in, 180; revolution in, 278; 
the Moderates in, 281; 
under Victor Emmanuel, 
285; votes for union, 303; 
volunteers from, 314; aspira- 
tions to the throne, 351 

Tuscany, Grand Duchy of, 6; 
commerce of, 8; Grand 
Duke's flight, 12; railway in. 



Index 



385 



Tuscany — Continued 

76; tranquillity of, 91; re- 
forms at, 95; constitution 
granted, 103; rising at, 109; 
Parliament at, 114, pro- 
visional government, 124; in- 
surrection in, 134 

U 

UUoa, General, 283 

Umbria, 48, 288, 319 

United Italian Provinces, the, 

49 
United States acknowledges 

Kingdom of Italy, 332 
Uruguay, 119 



Valerio, Lorenzo, 116 

Varese, Austrians defeated at, 
276 

Varignano, fort of, 356 

Vatican, Pius IX. at the, 367 

Velletri, battle of, 137 

Venice, Republic of, 4, 6, 12, 
24, 27; railway to, 76; 
Athenaeum of, 97; rising at, 
107; proclaims republic, 114; 
refuses armistice, 120; ca- 
pitulation of, 131; resistance 
by, 142; captured by Aus- 
trians, 143; plans for con- 
quest of, 333; to wrest from 
Austria, 351 ; plans for libera- 
tion of, 357; entry into, 361 

Ventimiglia, fort at, 54 

Vercelli, demands constitution, 
103; district of, 205; occupa- 
tion of, 275 

Verona, fortress of, 108; Aus- 
trians retreat to, 290 

Versailles, Museum of, 219 

Vespers, the, 20 

Vicenza, fall of , 115, 118, 151 

Victor Emmanuel I., 21 , 33 , 40, 
243 

Victor Emmanuel II., birth of, 



147; marriage of, 148; ap- 
points Cavour minister, 158; 
called Re Galantuomo, 162; 
attention to the army, 197; 
deaths in family of, 202; 
visits Paris and London, 
205; King of Upper Italy, 
241; speech by, 250; issues 
proclamation, 264; at Pa- 
lestro, 275; greets Parlia- 
ment, 304; meets Garibaldi, 
322; opens ParHament, 328; 
supports insurrection, 357; 
letter to Pius IX., 366; ad- 
dress to Parliament, 367 
Victor, Prince, 252 
Victoria, Queen, 249 
Vienna, Congress of, 18, 21, 23, 

98 
Vienna, demands constitution, 
107 ; ambassador recalled, 
198; advance upon, 241; 
Lord Cowley visits, 254; 
Cabinet of, 297; the iron 
crown at, 330; defence of, 
361 
Villach, Cavour at, 70 
Villafranca, peace of, 289 
Viva Pio IX., 90 
Volturno, Battle of, 320 
Vosges, Department of the, 239 

W 

Walewski, minister, 216, 256, 

300 
Warsaw, meeting at, 338 
Waterloo, battle of, 19, 235 
Wellington, Duke of, 155 
William I., King of Prussia, 

333, 359 

Y 

Young Italy Society, 53,58,63 

Z 

Zambelli, Giovanni, 186 
Zurich, peace of, 298 



ITALV 

BEFORE THE 
FRENCH REVOLUTION 



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ENGLISH MIUES 




ITALV 

BEFORE THE 
FRENCH REVOLUTION 



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Heroes of the Nations 



A Series of biographical studies of the lives and 
work of a number of representative historical char- 
acters about whom have gathered the great traditions 
of the Nations to which they belonged, and who have 
been accepted, in many instances, as types of the 
several National ideals. With the life of each typical 
character is presented a picture of the National con- 
ditions surrounding him during his career. 

The narratives are the work of writers who are 
recognized authorities on their several subjects, 
and while thoroughly trustworthy as history, pre- 
sent picturesque and dramatic " stories " of the Men 
and of the events connected with them. 

To the Life of each " Hero " is given one duo- 
decimo volume, handsomely printed in large type, 
provided with maps and adequately illustrated ac- 
cording to the special requirements of the severaJ 
subjects. 

Fof full list of volumes see next page. 



HEROES OF THE NATIONS 



NELSON. By W . Clark Russell, 
, GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. By C. 

R. L. Fletcher. 
PERICLES. By Evelyn Abbott. 
THEODORIC THE GOTH. By 

Thomas Hodgkin. 
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. By H. R. 

Fox-Bourne. 
JULIUS C^SAR. By W. Warde 

Fowler. 
WYCLIF. By Lewis Sergeant. 
NAPOLEON. By W. O'Connor 

Morris. 
HENRY OF NAVARRE. By P. 

F. Willert. 
CICERO. By J. L. Strachan- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By Noah 

Brooks. 
PRINCE HENRY (OF PORTU- 
GAL) THE NAVIGATOR. 

By C. R. Beazley. 
JULIAN THE PHILOSOPHER. 

By Alice Gardner. 
LOUIS XIV. By Arthur Hassall. 
CHARLES XIl. By R. Nisbet 

Bain. 
LORENZO DE' MEDICI. By 

Edward Armstrong. 
JEANNE D'ARC. By Mrs. OH- 

phant. 
GHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. By 

Washington Irvinp. 



ROBERT THE BRUCE. By Sij 

Herbert Maxwell. 
HANNIBAL. By W. O'Connoi 

Morris. 
ULYSSES S. GRANT. By William 

Conant Church. 
ROBERT E. LEE. By Henry 

Alexander White. 
THE CID CAMPEADOR. By H. 

Butler Clarke. 
SALADIN. By Stanley Lane 

Poole. 
BISMARCK. By J. W. Headlam, 
ALEXANDER THE GREAT. B> 

Benjamin 1. Wheeler. 
CHARLEMAGNE. By H. W, C 

Davis. 
OLIVER CROMWELL. By 

Charles Firth. 
RICHELIEU. By James B.Perkins. 
DANIEL O'CONNELL. By Rob- 
ert Dunlop. 
SAINT LOUIS (Louis IX. of 

France). By Frederick Perry. 
LORD CHATHAM. By Walford 

Davis Green. 
OWEN GLYNDWR. By Arthur 

G. Bradley. 
HENRY V. By Charles L. Kings- 
ford. 
EDWARD I. By Edward Jenks, 
AUGUSTUS C^SAR. By J. B, 

Firth. 



HEROES CF THE NATIONS 



FREDERICK THE GREAT. By 

W. F. Reddaway. 
WELLINGTON. By W. O'Connor 

Morris. 
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. 

By J. B. Firth. 
MOHAMMED. By D.S.MargoUouth. 
CHARLES THE BOLD. By Ruth 

Putnam. 
WASHINGTON. By J. A. Harrison. 



WILLIAM THE CONQUERER 

By F. B. Stanton. 
FERNANDO CORTfeS. By F. A. 

MacNutt. 
WILLIAM THE SILENT. By 

Ruth Putnam. 
BLUCHER. By E. F. Henderson, 
ROGER THE GREAT OF SICILY. 

By E. Curtis. 
CANUTE THE GREAT. By L. 

M. Larson. 



Other volumes in preparation are : 



By C. T. At- 



GREGORY VII. By F. Urquhart. 
JUDAS MACCABiEUS. By Israe) 

Abrahams. 
FREDERICK 11. By A. L. Smith, 

New York— G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, Publishers— London 



MARLBOROUGH, 
kinson. 

MOLTKE. By James Warden. 

ALFRED THE GREAT. By Ber- 
tha Lees. 



The Story of the Nations 



In the story form the current of each National life 
is distinctly indicated, and its picturesque and note- 
worthy periods and episodes are presented for the 
reader in their philosophical relation to each othei 
as well as to universal history. 

It is the plan of the writers of the different volume? 
to enter into the real life of the peoples, and to bring 
them before the reader as they actually lived, labored, 
and struggled — as they studied and wrote, and as 
they amused themselves. In carrying out this plan, 
the myths, with which the history of all lands be- 
gins, are not overlooked, though they are carefully 
distinguished from the actual history, so far as the 
labors of the accepted historical authorities have 
resiilted in definite conclusions. 

The subjects of the different volumes have been 
planned to cover connecting and, as far as possible, 
consecutive epochs or periods, so that the set when 
completed will present in a comprehensive narrative 
the chief events in the great Story of the Nations: 
but it is, of course, not always practicable to issue 
the several volumes in their chronological ordsr. 

For list of volumes see next page. 



THE STORY OF THE NATIONS 



GREECE. Prof. Jas. A. Harrison. 

ROME. Arthur Oilman. 

THE JEWS. Prof. James K. Hos- 

mer. 
CHALDEA. Z. A. Ragozin. 
GERMANY. S. Baring-Gould. 
NORWAY. Hjalmar H. Boyesen. 
SPAIN. Rev. E. E. and Susan 

Hale. 
HUNGARY. Prof. A. Vdmb^ry. 
CARTHAGE. Prof. Alfred J. 

Church. 
THE SARACENS. Arthur Gil- 

man. 
THE MOORS IN SPMN. Stanley 

Lane-Poole. 
THE NORMANS. Sarah Ome 

Jewett. 
PERSIA. S. G. W. Benjamin. 
ANCIENT EGYPT. Prof. Geo. 

Kawlinson. 
ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. Prof. 

J. P. Mahaffy. 
ASSYRIA, Z. A. Ragozin. 
THE GOTHS. Henry Bradley. 
IRELAND. Hon. Emily Lawless. 
TURKEY. Stanley Lane-Poole. 
MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PER- 

SIA. Z. A, Ragozin. 
MEDIEVAL FRANCE. Prof. Gus- 

tave Masson. 
HOLLAND. Piof. J. Thorold 



MEXICO. Susan Hale. 
PHCENICIA- George Rawlinson. 



THE HANSA TOWNS. Halen 

Zimmem. 
EARLY BRITAIN. Prof. Alfred 

J. Church. 
THE BARBARY CORSAIRS. 

Stanley Lane-Poole. 
RUSSIA. W.R. MorfiU. 
THE JEWS UNDER ROME. W. 

D. Morrison. 
SCOTLAND. John Mackintosh. 
SWITZERLAND. R. Stead and 

Mrs. A. Hug. 
PORTUGAL. H. Morse-Stephens, 
THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE. C, 

W. C. Oman. 
SICILY. E. A. Freeman. 
THE TUSCAN REPUBLICS. Bella 

Duffy. 
POLAND. W. R. Morfia. 
PARTHIA. Geo. RawIinson„ 
JAPAN. David Murray. 
THE CHRISTIAN RECOVERY 

OF SPAIN. H.E. Watts. 
AUSTRALASLf^., Gieville Tregar- 

then. 
SOUTHERN AFRICA. Geo. M, 

Theal. 
VENICE. Alethea WeiL 
THE CRUSADES. T. S. Aichei 

and C. L. Kingsford. 
VEDIC INDIA. Z. A. Ragozin. 
BOHEMIA. C. E. Maurice. 
CANADA. J. G. Bourinot. 
THE BALKAN STATES. William 

Milter. 



THE STORY OF THE NATIONS 



BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. R. 

W. Prazer. 
MODERN FRANCE. Andr^LeBon. 
THE BRITISH EMPIRE. Alfred 

T. Story. Two vols. 
THE FRANKS. Lewis Sergeant. 
THE WEST INDIES. Amos K. 

Fiske. 
fHE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 

Justin McCarthy, M.P. Two 

vols. 
AUSTRIA. Sidney Whitman. 
CHINA. Robt. K. Douglass. 
MODERN SPAIN. Major Martin 

A. S, Hume. 
MODERN ITALY. Pietro Orsi. 
THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. 

Helen A. Smith. '^wo vols. 
WALES AND CORNWALL. Owen 

M. Edwards. 
WEDLBVAL B-OME. Wm. Miller. 



THE PAPAL MONARCHY. Wm. 

Barry. 
MEDIEVAL INDIA. Stanleji 

Lane-Poole. 
BUDDHIST INDIA. T. W. Rhys- 
Davids. 
THE SOUTH AMERICAN RE 

PUBLICS. Thomas C. Daw 

son. Two vols. 
PARLIAMENTARY ENGLAND 

Edward Jenks. 
MEDIEVAL ENGLAND. Mar^ 

Bateson. 
THE UNITED STATES. Edward 

Earle Sparks. Two vols. 
ENGLAND, THE COMING OF 

PARLIAMENT. L. Cecil Jane. 
GREECE— EARLIEST TIMES— 

A.D. 14. E. S. Shuckburgh. 
ROMAN EMPIRE, B.C. 29-A.D 

476. N. Stuart Jones. 



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